Light and Dark
by CenturionAfricanus
Summary: Percy has been mistreated for years. The constant topic of bullies and his abusive step-father. All because he is and albino. He is convinced he will never find a friend until he is thrown into the world of Greek mythology when his one real friend is kidnapped. With everyone counting on him, can he make the right choice in the end and finally find out who his father is. Peranca.
1. Chapter 1-west over hall

**I don't own PJO or HOO**

 **Percy POV**

I hate my life.

For starts, I am running through a winter forest outside my school, in a tux, chasing after my crush and her brother, who were kidnapped by a teacher and running from my worst bully, my life really sucks.

Let me start from the beginning.

First a little about me. I am decently tall. Really skinny, but that helps when hiding from bullies, I am pretty fast too. My skin has never tanned before, it never burns either. My hair is bright white and all over the place, like I was hit by lightning and then tried to squish it down. My eyes were a very pale pink color with pale yellow flecks, in short, I was an albino. I also have ADHD and Dyslexia and I am lactose intolerant. which means no ice cream, no pizza, and no cheese burgers. Pure agony.

I don't have a dad. I have never seen a picture of him or even gotten his name out of my mom. She always closes off on that topic whenever it comes up.

My mom, Sally Jackson, on the other hand, is the greatest person I have ever met in my life, ever. She always is bright and cheery. She always says nice things and never gets mad, even when I fail out of every school I have ever been to. I don't get into trouble on purpose, or at all sometimes. I am just everybodies favorite scapegoat.

When I was 7, she started dating some guy and I didn't meet him until I was 9. When I finally met him, he seemed like a decent guy, maybe just needed to work out a little. Then I got to know him when they got married a few months later.

And I got to know Satan himself.

He was awful. He was always drunk and I don't think he knew what a shower was, giving him the nickname, smelly Gabe. He was always taking any money I earned doing odd jobs around the city for beer, cigarettes, and poker.

I put up with him for my mom. She choose him to be with, so I dealt with him. she deserved happiness and if he made her happy for some strange reason, then so be it. I acted as his caddy and punching bag for 3 years.

Then when I was 12, before I started at Yancy Academy, he started cutting me. It started as a few scratches on my arms. Then my chest and back. Then he started carving. My mom found out the day before I left for boarding school. He had had carved for the first time on my upper back for the first time a few nights before and my mom walked in on me changing and saw all the scars and his carving.

Weak

It was simple, but she lost it. She drove me to school the next day and told me she was going to get rid of him. That made me happy. I went through the year and worked as hard as I could to get good grades, but I couldn't keep up with the course work and eventually fell behind. The bullying didn't help either. It was average except for one bully, Darren. He was tall, broad and strong, a typical football build. He had plenty of lackies, but he enjoyed torturing me personally. He would blame me whenever he got in trouble and everyone believed him.

The only person who was nice to me was his roommate ironically, Grover. He helped me out and said Darren shouldn't bully anyone. He followed him everywhere and didn't say anything to him about it, but he hated Darren as much as I did, so I counted him as my first friend.

They both left near the end of the year along with two teachers, Ms. Dodds and Mr Brunner. Ms Dodds was probably related to Gabe, she hated me, but she also hated Darren, so I guess she was okish. Mr Brunner was my favorite teacher. He always favored Darren over anyone else, but hid it well. He was always nice to me and helped me with my dyslexia when I needed help.

When I went home for the summer, Gabe was still there, but my mom said he would be gone soon. The next year was normal. I tried public school in New York for the first time and it was ok, I was still kicked out and had no friends, but my grades were slightly better. The the summer came.

In May, just before graduation, Gabe found out I had been expelled again. He was pissed. He beat me for an hour straight. My mom walked in as he brought his knife. She tried to get him off me, but he hit her. He head hit the counter and bounced onto the floor. I called an ambulance while Gabe fled and told me if I told anyone, he would finish the job. My mom was sent to the hospital and was diagnosed with a coma. No one knew when she would wake up or what would happen once she did. I had to go live with just Gabe for the rest of the summer.

I got a job as a janitor's assistant at the planetarium. The janitors told me everything about the planets and the stars, and for once, it was the kind of class I enjoyed. I put my entire salary towards my mother's hospital bill, but Gabe never put in a dime. I couldn't possibly make enough, and the debt started to pile up.

Gabe beat me whenever I got home and I got used to it. Freak and Bastard joined Weak on my back. He enjoyed torturing me and laughed every second of it.

When the school year was about to begin, Gabe dropped a bomb on me, he was sending me off to military school for the year. He said he had been saving his money all summer to get rid of me for 9 months and he said that he would pay for my mother's hospital bill while I was gone. I didn't trust him, but what choice did I have.

I took a long bus ride up to Westover hall, in Maine. And prepared for the worst school year of my life. Boy that was the biggest understatement of the century.

When I got there, I was greeted by some french guy named Dr. Thorn. He sent me off to the opening assembly and told me my belongings would be sent off to my dorm. I tried to pay attention to the presentation, but a younger student a few rows in front of me kept adding his personal comments and a girl next to him kept shushing him and he would laugh at her. Because of that, I missed most of the rules. I knew I was screwed. I went to the dorm listing and found I was paired with someone named Nico DiAngelo, who was 11 to my 14. Hopefully he was quiet and respectful. A good little angel. Oh how wrong I was.

Turns out, it was the boy who never shut up. Apparently annoying people was his only talent. The annoying questions never stopped.

"Why is your hair white?"

"Are you an old man who sucked the youth out a little boy, but kept the hair?"

"Are you going to drain the youth out of me?"

"Why are your eyes pink?"

"Why is your skin so pale?"

"Are you a zombie?"

"Are you going to eat my brain?"

"Can you eat my sister's brain instead?"

"Do you speak Italian?"

"Do you play Mythomagic?"

The questions kept coming and coming until I stopped him.

"I am an albino, that is why I look the way I do. No, I don't speak Italian and I have no idea what the hell Mythomagic is!" I snapped at him and shut myself in my room. The dorms had two bedrooms, a small living area, and one full bathroom.

I heard a small knock on the door, but left it for Nico.

"Get the door Alberto, I am in the bathroom!" He called to me and I groaned, Alberto, I swear if he doesn't stop acting so immature, I was going sanp worse than I did earlier. There was no upside to putting up with him.

When I answered the door, I was stunned. There was the girl who was shushing Nico during the performance. She had the same olive skin, but a little more tan. Her eyes were the same as Nico, a deep black, like night or ink. Her hair was midnight black and was only a little longer than her shoulders. She had it braided down her back in a tight braid.

I instantly knew she was special. She had a calming aura that put me at ease, something only my mom had done in the past. She was absolutely stunning and I became instantly self conscious.

"Uh, Hi" I started and she laughed a little at me.

"I take it you are Percy Jackson, the poor soul who is stuck with my most annoying little brother." she greeted me with a firm handshake.

"Yeah, he thinks my name is Alberto because I told him I was albino." I told her with a sigh. She just shook her head and laughed.

"That sounds like my brother, sorry if he disrupted the opening speeches and rules for you, my roommate recognized me as his roommate and never shut up to me about it. She was constantly complaining. I needed an escape so I figured I would apologize in advance to whoever got stuck with my brother." she said, still chuckling

"Yeah, does he always ask question so fast and what the heck is mythomagic?" I asked her and she shook her head and looked at the floor. She was really cute, and getting rid of that thought.

"Yes he does, and mythomagic is a card game based off Greek mythology. He has every figurine but one and just about every card from ever series. Don't let him get started telling you about it, he will never shut up about it." she warned me, it sounded a little fun, but Nico would probably crush me.

"Got it." I told her and I heard the toilet flush

"Who was at the door Alberto?" I heard Nico approaching and when he saw Bianca, he ran to her and gave her a hug.

"Bianca!" he shouted as he let her go. "This is my room mate, Alberto. He is a zombie who sucks the youth out of people and I told him to eat your brains if you don't let me eat only dessert from now on." he told her and I started banging my head against the door frame.

"No Nico, your roommate's name is Percy and he is and albino, his name is not Alberto. That's why his skin and hair are white. And why his eyes are pink. As for the dessert, I don't think they will have any except for every other weekend for the well behaved only." she told him strictly and he began fake sobbing

"Th-that means I-I will need to take You and Alberto's desserts on those days to make u-up for the lack of sugar." he cried and I started laughing while Bianca gave a cold stare.

"I will take your dessert if you fake cry over nothing again. It is only for the well behaved, so I doubt you will be getting any." she scolded him and he faked a look of shock.

"What do you mean dear sister, do you mean that I am poorly behaved?" he asked with a fake look of total shock, I lost it at that. Nico and Bianca were probably the funniest people to watch argue ever.

"Shut Up!" They both shouted at me, which caused us all to break down laughing.

"Is there a problem here students?" a voice came from behind us. It was the french dude, Dr. Thorn.

"Not at all sir." Bianca told him in a respectful tone, she knew her way to get around authority.

"What about the two young gentlemen we have here. Are they having any problems?" he questioned in a tone that said he couldn't care less.

"All good here to sir." I told him, trying to copy the tone Bianca used and failed pretty badly.

I will see you all bright and early tomorrow for breakfast and schedule handouts, good night." He said in a bored tone and he walked off.

"Well, I should probably get going back to my room." Bianca told us. "My room mate, some cherokee girl named Piper, will probably worry about me. She seems nice enough. Now go get ready for bed Nico." She told him and he scurried off.

"Well, I guess I will see you tomorrow at breakfast." I told her, trying to act cool. Then she hugged me.

"Thank you thank you thank you." she said, her head resting on my shoulder. We were about the same height.

"For what?" I asked her, I wasn't complaining, but I was confused.

"For being a good roommate to Nico. You are a good person, I can tell. Most people would get mad at him and some really bad people would hit him. But you are different, I can tell." she told me as she let me go, I was a little disappointed she let go, I never bucked up enough to hug her back.

"Its no problem, Nico is kinda like the brother I never had." I told her.

she gave me one last smile that made my stomach turn and my heart skip a beat. Then she left and I shut the door. I went back to my room and got around for bed, stopping to trace the scars on my back in my mirror.

Weak

Freak

Bastard

At one point I thought they were all true, but after tonight, I didn't think of myself as a freak anymore. I was one my way to having two great friends. No freak could have good of friends as Nico and Bianca. Bianca. she was probably the most perfect person on the planet, after my mom. I knew she would never like me, but I was ok with that. I knew no girl would ever love me because of how strange I look.

Nico knocked at my door and I hurried out my shirt on. When I opened the door, he was holding two decks of cards.

"Wanna try and learn how to play Mythomagic?" he asked me, sounding hopeful.

I was about to say no and go to bed when I looked into his puppy dog eyes and my resolve broke instantly.

"Sure buddy." I told him. We played until 9, then I made him go to bed, despite his complaints. He was crazy good and I learned he was dyslexic like me. He had every god card and was only missing the Hades figurine. I almost won once or twice, but he pulled through in the end.

The next day I was up bright and early when bugle music was blasted over the loudspeaker system. I dragged Nico and myself down stairs and too breakfast. Bianca was saving us seats next to a familiar figure.

"Grover?!" I called to him and he spun around and a large smile grew on his face.

"Percy!" he called to me and I walked up to him and pulled him into a bro hug.

"I didn't know you went here, does this ,mean Darren goes here too?" I asked him quietly and his face fell.

"No he doesn't, thank the gods." he told me and I introduced him to Nico, he had already met Bianca.

After breakfast, we had a mile hike through the wilderness while Grover was forced to do pushups til his arms went numb.

After that we had our classes. I had either Grover or Bianca or both in all but one of my classes. I was only missing them in greek since Bianca took Italian and Grover had nature club.

We developed a pretty normal schedule between the four of us and we were the best of friends. Grover, I found out, hated Darren, but was forced to deal with him and sucked up to escape a beating. He loved nature more than life itself and never went anywhere without his protect nature cap.

Bianca was the absolute sweetest and nicest person I had ever met. She was perfect in every way. The way she looked out for her brother above everyone else and had been doing so for as long as either of them could remember.

Nico was like everyone's annoying little brother. No matter how annoying he got, you had to love him. Grover also learned how to play mythomagic and all four of us would play in me and Nico's dorm.

None of us liked to talk about our pasts very much and all avoided the topic if we could. That was fine by me though. I simply told them I was from New York and had ADHD and Dyslexia.

Nico and Bianca were from DC and had ADHD and Dyslexia as well. Grover was the only one who didn't and he was from long island. I figured we all had bad home lives, so I didn't touch the subject.

Everything was perfect until the winter dance. Nico, Bianca and I were the only ones not going home for the break so we had the were going to have the school all to ourselves for almost two weeks. It was going to be perfect.

When I got to the dance, Grover was nowhere to be found. Nico was in a button down and suit pants that Bianca had forced him into. I was wearing a tux that I had stolen from the drama department. Bianca, was wearing the most beautiful dress I had ever seen. It was a simple, modest black dress, but it made her look like a goddess. She was even wearing the green beret I had given her when some idiot cut her hair as a prank. The hat hid it while it regrew, but she always wore after too, that made me feel really good.

I hung out in the back of the party with Nico and Bianca while Grover was nowhere to be found, probably didn't come.

I played a quick game of mythomagic with Nico, he beat me of course, I was busy trying not to drool at how good Bianca looked. I offered to go get everyone drinks and everything started going downhill from there.

I had gotten three glasses of punch and was carefully making my way back to Bianca and Nico when a familiar figure I hoped I would never see again came up to me.

"Well, well ,well. What do we have here. Freak boy, I've missed beating you up. You never told anyone, a perfect punching bag." Darren spat in my face and I threw the punch at his face. It stopped in the air inches from my face and my jaw dropped. How had he done that.

He laughed harder when he saw my expression and threw the water back into my face. He then cracked his knuckles and was about to punch me when a blond that looked like she belonged in Cali instead of Maine stopped him.

"Leave the poor mortal alone Darren." She scolded him. "We have to catch the death filth. Grover said their names were Nico and Bianca. He said they had a friend who might be a third. Do you know who they are?" she addressed me for the last part and her eyes unnerved me. They were a cold, hard gray. No life of laughter to be found. Like she was dead on the inside. I guess being around Darren for a long time will do that to anyone.

I didn't like how she talked about Nico and Bianca, so I lied. "I have no idea who you are talking about." I told her and left to go find Nico and Bianca so we could hide from Darren and whoever the other girl was. They were up to no good, I could tell.

When I went to get them, Dr. Thorn had beaten me to it. I watched, frozen, as he grabbed both of them and dragged them out the back door. I had to save them, he was kidnapping them.

Bianca tried to break loose, but only succeeded in losing her hat. I scooped it up on my way out and sprinted after them.

"Get him!" I heard Darren shout from somewhere behind me and saw he was pointing at me.

I sprinted out the door and out into the frozen woods. I followed the small trail that Dr. Thorn had left.

When I got to a clearing I saw he was waiting there.

"Well, well, well. It looks like the third one found me." he said with a wicked grin.

"I have no idea what the hell you are talking about now let them go!" I shouted at him, hoping that this wouldn't lead to a fight. The only experience I had in a fight was losing one.

Thorn just laughed at me and suddenly, he had a tail. It flicked some sort of knife thing at me. It caught on my jacket and pinned me to a tree.

"Percy!" both DiAngelos yelled I looked at them and smiled, to let them know I was alright.

Darren came rushing into the clearing and laughed at me.

"You idiot, you want to beat up, you already hung yourself up to be hit. Who am I to argue." he laughed and gave me a solid slug in the gut. He still hadn't noticed Dr. Thorn of either DiAngelo.

A few more knife spikes flew towards him and pinned him completely to the tree next to me.

I slipped off my jacket to free myself from the tree and charged Thorn. He began to transform into some lion looking creature that had a scorpion tail that had been shooting the spikes. Bianca and Nico were stuck behind him, too scared to move.

He knocked me back into Darren with his paw and Darren was knocked out. Irony is a bitch bro, he earned being knocked out.

I was sitting dazed on the ground and Thorn flicked a few more daggers at me and Darren, I was too dazed to move, but luckily, a short black haired girl with a shield jumped in front and blocked the spikes from hitting me. The blonde girl appeared out of nowhere and started tending to Darren after she pushed my away from him. Grover caught me and set me down.

"Wait here Percy, some friends of mine are going to try and free the DiAngelos." He told me slowly, like he was talking to a 3 year old. As he was talking, I saw a silver flash in the trees.

"There is silver in the trees." I told Grover stupidly, I think Thorn hit me harder than I had first thought.

"Eat this, I will be right back." Grover told me, handing me a small cube of what looked like caramel. I tried eating it because I really had nothing to lose at this point. Monsters keeping me from everyone I care about. Thorn-who I now realized was a manticore-was keeping me from Nico and Bianca and Gabe was keeping me from my mother by shipping me to Maine.

When I tried what Grover gave me, it was the best tasting thing I had ever eaten. It tasted like a mixture of my mom's cookies and the brownies Bianca and I had made for Nico one time in Home ec. I instantly felt better and picked up a sword that Darren had dropped. I didn't really care why he had it at this point, I was just pissed at the manticore for taking my friends.

Before I could work up the courage to attack the manticore, a rain of silver arrows came down on the manticore. One missed and nicked Nico in the cheek and he started to bleed.

"Be careful!" I shouted at whoever had shot the arrows and a group of girls, all wearing silver parkas, came out of the forest. A black haired one with a silver circle on her head was in the lead.

"Permission to kill Milady?" she asked in a cold tone

"Permission granted." a auburn haired 12 year old told her she took off at the manticore.

She leaped in the air and tried to shoot it with a bow and arrows, but the manticore knocked her arrows away with his tail and she switched to hunting knives and attacked at close range.

I used the distracted manticore to get to Nico and Bianca. I grabbed both of their hands and pulled them away from the cliff. I was leading them back to the others when I felt a spike slam into the back of my right leg. I went down hard.

"Go, run guys." I told Bianca and Nico, but they didn't listen. They tried to help me up and get the spike out.

"Just go guys, save yourself and leave me, GO" I yelled at them, but again they ignored me.

"AAAGGGHHH" I heard the girl behind me scream and fall as she also got hit with a spike. I felt my leg go numb, like some kind of poison was on it.

I heard two people laughing, Darren, who was pointing at me and laughing that I was hurt, I really hate that guy. The manticore was the other one laughing. He was laughing over the fallen girl.

"You will release my hunter monster." the auburn haired girl told Thorn as he morphed back into a human shape.

"Y-you aren't supposed to be able to interfere." he said, sounding scared, but my gut told me he was faking.

"You are a monster. Hunters hunt monsters. I am a hunter. Therefore, killing you is not only within my permission, but my job." The auburn haired girl told him

"Well if that is the case, I must be leaving now. Your huntress will make a most excellent prize for my master." he told her with a grin.

The sound of helicopters could begin to be heard and machine guns being shot.

"Mortals cannot view my hunt." the auburn haired girl said in a monotone and she waved her hand. The entire helicopter turned into a sparrow and it flew away. The people had just vanished.

"While she was doing that, she hadn't noticed Thorn taking the knocked out girl. I threw the sword I took from Darren forward and managed to cut off the arm of his that was carrying the girl. He howled in pain and shot more spikes at me. One caught me just above my eye, but I had leaned back so it only left a deep cut. I could feel myself blacking out as Thorn made to grab me, but something happened at the last moment. Bianca tackled him off the cliff and they fell off.

"BIANCA!" I shouted as loud as I could, shaking everyone out of whatever trance they were in. The last thing I saw was her green beret laying on the snow. I scooped it up and held it tight. Bianca was gone. She had sacrificed herself to save me. Gabe was right, I really was weak.

Then everything black.

 **Boom, first chapter in my new story done. Percy's godly parent will be revealed in time. I actually know the pairing this time around right out of the gate. Percy+Bianca story. Hope you like the first chapter. Leave reviews if you liked it or not because if not many people want me to keep going, I will just kill the story.**

 **I have almost finished my next chapter in Hunters of Fate, I am not abandoning it, just going to be writing two stories at once.**

 **Happy fourth of July for everyone from the USA. All the fireworks in my area were pathetic so I hope you got better.**

 **Happy Reading- Centurion Africanus.**


	2. Chapter 2-welcome to camp

**I don't own PJO or HOO**

 **Percy POV**

When I woke up, everything was silver. I tried to sit up, but Grover was by my side in an instant, holding me down.

"Easy there killer." he said as gently as he could, but I could tell from his voice that he was freaking out. "You got two doses of manticore venom still flushing out of your system. Have some more ambrosia." he finished as he handed me some more caramel squares.

I ate them and tried to remember what happened. Thorn was a manticore, Darren could control water. Bianca. Please say her falling off a cliff was just a figment of my imagination.

"Grover," I asked him cautiously, "Did Bianca really fall off a cliff with a manticore?" I finished and he gave me a sad look before breaking down crying.

"It's all my fault. I was supposed to protect both her and Nico. I was useless the whole time." Grover sobbed. I sat up and gave him a gentle pat on the back.

"If it is anyone's fault, it is Darren's. He was useless the whole time and took up the time of whoever the blonde is." I told him, but he seemed to be even more upset.

"But he threw his sword to save the hunter. He was the only one who did real work. He is outside the tent now boasting." Grover told me, still crying.

"I took his sword and threw it." I told Grover, a little confused as to what Grover was saying.

"I know, but if any one questions what Darren says, he beats the crap out of them. Only Thalia can stand up to him, but he can guilt her into getting his way." Grover said, finally stopping his crying.

"Some quick questions," I asked him carefully, "Who is Thalia, was that really a manticore that Bianca killed, and why the hell do you have fake goat legs on?" I asked him, trying to hide my shock at the last one. Grover must have some strange style choices when outside of school.

"At least you got it right." Grover said with a sigh.

"I got what right?" I asked

"These are goat legs, I'm a satyr." He said in a monotone.

I want to say I took the news well, but I just fainted.

I woke up a little later and Grover was talking to the blonde girl.

"He remembers throwing the sword. He smells extremely like a mortal, but I think he is a demigod. He never has spoken of his family life and he also has ADHD and Dyslexia."

"He's waking up." the blonde told him and turned to me.

"Who are you and why did you lie to us about knowing the DiAngelos?" she asked, her eyes staring right through my facade.

"Darren made it sound like he wanted to kill them, he called them death spawn. I protect my friends." I told her, staring right back at her. I think I saw a flash of understanding in her eyes before they turned steely again.

"He is trying to help, as am I, they are children of Hades that is why he called them death spawn." she answered.

"Well how was I supposed to know that, also, what the hell do you mean when you say they are children of Hades? He is a Greek god, they aren't real." I said and she rolled her eyes.

She then went on to explain about how the gods have been real since the time of ancient Greece. How they had moved as the times changed and the new mount Olympus was a hidden floor in the Empire state building. How the god's favorite past time was knocking up mortals and we were the results. Demi-god heroes. My favorite part was all the monsters were real and their favorite hobby was hunting and eating demi-gods.

Even after seeing Grover with goat legs and a live manticore, I still didn't believe her, but so many things were starting to make sense about my life. My dad was actually a Greek god. That's why he was never around. He probably wasn't very important seeing as I was about as powerful as a stick.

"So then why didn't my dad help me or my mom if he is an all-powerful Greek god?" I asked her as I started my list of questions.

"All the gods are bound by ancient laws set by the greater forces that they cannot interfere with human affairs directly. They have their children so they can do that. We demi-gods are the reason the world goes around today. Most great athletes and business men have relations to the gods." she explained to me and it made some sense, but who would encourage parents to be bad parents.

"Who set the "ancient laws"? Who are the greater forces? Titans? Primordials?" I asked her and she made a face.

"No demi-gods like them, but it wasn't the Titans, they are all evil and so are their children." she told me, which didn't really answer my question, but did raise new ones.

"Aren't most of the Olympians children of the Titans?" I asked her and she nodded

"My point exactly." She said. I got the feeling she didn't like the gods too much.

"So was it the Primordials then or..." I let the question trail off and she shrugged.

"It might have been the gods, they love hiding behind the ancient laws to be irresponsible. No one has heard word from any primordials in millennia. Most people are pretty sure they have faded or are in a deep unawakening sleep." she answered stood up to go.

"Well, that's all we can do for now, the sun has almost risen and we need to get you and Nico to camp. My name is Annabeth by the way. You seem to already know Grover and Darren and the other girl with the big shield and short spikey hair is Thalia" she told me and helped me up.

"Good to know. Anything helpful hints for when we get to where ever you guys are taking us?" I asked as I stumbled to my feet and took the fresh clothes from my dorm that Grover handed me.

"If you see a body builder looking girl or Darren approaching you in the arena or by the bathrooms, run." was all she answered with before she left the tent with Grover.

I changed quickly and rubbed the Bastard carving that Gabe had put in my back. It wasn't true after all. My dad was out there, and he was a god. I wasn't sure if that made me feel better or worse, but it proved Gabe wrong. He was wrong. I could be the hero. This was the start of a new life for me. I finished getting changed and walked out of the tent.

Only to be met with a fist to the face.

I felt my nose break as the fist crunched into my face. Standing over me was the girl who I had saved from the manticore. She had long black hair with a silver circlet in it and blacker eyes. Not soft like Bianca, but cold and hard, like she had never laughed except at someone else's pain.

"That was for attacking the manticore. I had it completely under control." she hissed. We both knew it was a lie, but I shook my head in agreement and tried to crawl away to be met with a foot to the face.

This time it was Darren and he kept kicking me.

"You worthless brat." he started a rant about how I was too weak to be considered a human and how I should be his slave for the rest of my life because he was so awesome. I hate him almost as much as Gabe. Someone really needed to give him a reality check.

And it just so happened that a silver arrow nailed him in the junk.

I flinched as he fell over crying his eyes out and sobbing like a two year old. I saw the arrow was blunt, but that only made me feel a little better.

I turned and saw it was the circlet girl who had shot him. She gave me a death stare that made me shy away from her and she stalked off towards a large clearing where everybody else was gathered. I saw the girl Annabeth had identified as Thalia watching over Nico as he fired off question after question at her. She lost it and swung a fist at him.

I jumped in front of the punch and got hit in the face for the third time in about five minutes. Her fist hurt the most by far though. Her fist for some reason not only zapped me, but it also hurt like hell.

"Jeez, are you stupid or something kid?" she asked me and I frowned at her.

"No one hits my friends." I told her. And she grinned a little at this.

"Loyalty. Something all heroes need, but few have, we might get along yet." She told me and I nodded at her. I don't know what she meant about the loyalty thing, but it sounded like a compliment.

"Thanks, I think. My name is Percy and Annabeth told me you are Thalia." I told her and she smiled a little.

"Trust owl face to spew out as much knowledge as she can on every given occasion, but yeah, I am the one and only resident daughter of Zeus." she answered smiling. Nico had retreated to assault Grover with questions ranging from stupid to completely ridiculous.

"Owl face?" I asked her about her nick-name for Annabeth and she gave a sad shake of her head

"She is a daughter of Athena and her animal is an owl.' she answered, but I sensed there was more to the story she wasn't letting on, but I didn't push her, I didn't feel like taking another fist to the face so early in the day. I liked to keep my beating between 10 and 2.

"Works for me." I told her and then we stood in silence for a bit.

I noticed the temperature start to heat up a little and I noticed the sun had turned into a sports car. It came down to a smooth landing in the field and a 19 year old looking guy hopped out of the driver's seat. He spun the keys on his finger and smiled at Artemis, who was standing at the front of the group. She looked less than happy to see the man while he looked overjoyed.

"Arty!" He exclaimed with fake enthusiasm. "How is my favorite little sister doing?" he jostled some random hunter with his elbow and earned a kick to the shin from sed hunter.

"How many times have I told you to leave my hunters alone Apollo?" Artemis asked him as he massaged his shin. So this was Apollo, he seemed more like a playboy than a god. Probably as responsible as one too.

"Well, if my memory serves me correctly sis, you were the one who summoned me here. Hmm, I feel a Haiku coming on." he said with a thoughtful look on his face. Everyone groaned as he started.

"Baby Arty calls

She is begging for my help

I am so awesome"

When he finished his haiku, Artemis slapped him across the face.

"Let's get a few things straight shall we, I am the older sibling, not you. You are to never to flirt with my hunters again, and if you call me Arty one more time, you will never have another demigod child. Am I clear?" she had grabbed his hair and was staring him straight in the eye. I thought Apollo was going to wet himself, but he just laughed.

"Whatever you say sis." he answered her and he stood up straight. "I understand you lot need a ride to Camp, well I, Sir Awesomeness, am here to give you one. Now everybody hop in!" he called to the rest of us while he pulled Artemis off to the side.

"Where you great oaf, you still have the sun chariot as a stupid tiny car." the circlet hunter told him and I thought he was going to kill her for talking to him like that. Again, he just laughed it off.

"Ah Zoe, I see you haven't changed a bit. I see two young men sporting excellent sets of bruises, your work I guess?" he said gesturing to Darren and me.

"I have no idea what you are talking about." she told him with pure hatred in her voice.

"Well I should probably clean them up a little then." he said and snapped his fingers. My face instantly felt a ton better. I could feel the bruises and black eye were gone and my nose was no longer broken. But I also felt something else, like a stronger connection to him. Maybe he was my father. We didn't have any similar looks, but I was albino, I doubt there are any albino gods.

"All aboard." he called to everyone and clicked his car keys. His epic sports car turned into a crappy school bus. He talked to Artemis about something in private while the rest of us got on the bus. I was barely on my seat as I was next to both Grover and Nico. Darren kept scooching closer to Annabeth, while she seemed unsure on what to do. Thalia had her feet up and taking up an entire seat.

The whole hunt had made their way to the back of the bus, trying to stay as far from all guys as humanly, or godly, possible. I guess it made sense they hated guys when their patron goddess hated them too.

Apollo hopped on board and address the hunters quickly. "Listen up girl scouts." He told them and I face palmed. I may not have known much about the Greek world, but I am pretty sure calling man hating hunters armed to the max with various pointy weapons girl scouts was not a good idea.

"Artemis has to go hunting on a solo hunt for a while. You lot are going to be staying at the camp for a while." he told them and loud groaning could be heard. I guess the camp wasn't really that fun for them.

"Meanwhile, you wanna drive sis?" he asked Thalia and her face drained drastically. She glued herself to her seat and refused to budge, no matter how much Apollo begged for her to move.

"OK, next candidate, what about albino boy?" he asked me and I gulped. I slowly got up and moved to the steering wheel slowly. The hunters didn't seem happy that I was going to drive, but I tried to ignore them as I sat down in the driver's seat. Apollo stood next to me and gestured to the controls.

I had no idea what I was doing, then the information just came into my head. I pulled the wheel upwards slightly and slowly put pressure on the gas. The bus rose at a moderate pace and soon we were going sat a steady pace. Apollo and everyone else seemed surprised. As we neared New York, Apollo pointed me to Long Island, and I turned the bus slightly so we were headed straight to where he was pointed. I slowly let up on the gas and we began to descend. We soon landed peacefully in the middle of a strawberry field.

I stayed glued to the wheel while everyone else hopped off the bus, Darren bragging to anyone who would listen, which only seemed to be Annabeth, about he could have done a better job.

Once every one else was off, Apollo gave me a once over.

"I have never seen anyone handle my chariot with such ease on their first try, not even me. You aren't one of my kids if that was what you were thinking, but I get the feeling you have a bright future. If whoever your godly parent is doesn't see that, then they are an idiot." he told me and gave me a pat on the back.

I got off the bus and found Nico being led by Grover to a big house. It was painted an ugly blue and had an overly large patio.

On the patio was two figures. One was a pudgy man in a loud animal print shirt who reeked of alcohol, even though he was holding a diet coke.

The other was a familiar figure in a wheelchair...

"Mr. Brunner?" I asked my old Latin teacher and when he saw me, his features lit up.

"Percy, my dear boy, you have found your way to camp at last. I am sorry for leaving you behind last time, but there was more pressing matters at the time." he told me with an apologetic look on his face, I felt inclined to accept his apology and move on, but I kept my guard up and pulled Nico closer to me.

"What are you talking about? Did you know I was a demi-god back in 6th grade and never told me? And how are you a counselor here if you are in a wheel chair?" I questioned him and he sighed.

"Grover, if you could take our other young friend into the den to watch the video, I have some things to discuss with Mr. Jackson here. And for starts Perseus, my real name is Chiron, not Mr. Brunner." he said, sounding tired, but with slight amusement. I flinched at my real name, but let it pass.

"How can you be Chiron, I thought Chiron was a centaur?" I asked him as he led me inside. He gave me a quick look over before smiling a little.

"I see you took my advice to try harder in school after all, I was afraid I had not made a difference to you." he told me, looking happier than he had moments ago. I didn't tell him that the real reason was Mythomagic and I only knew because Nico had used his playing card to beat me on several occasions. "As for your question." he said as he stood up.

Except his legs weren't human legs, they were the front legs of a horse. He took a few steps forward and revealed he was a full sized chestnut centaur.

"I am a centaur, just one used to blending in with humans." he finished while I stared in awe.

"As for you other questions, I had a suspicion you were a demi-god based off a few things, but your sent was exceptionally mortal. I had to fix a dire emergency, so I was unable to follow up on my suspicions. I went back to Yancy the next year hoping to see you, but you weren't there." he told me gently.

"What was the emergency?" I asked him, already moving on from the fact that he had suspected I was a demigod, but never looked into it.

"That will be explained in time. In the meantime, what about you, do you know which of your parents is a god by chance?" he asked me and I internally groaned. I hated answering questions about myself.

"I have known my mom my entire life, so I think that means my dad is a god." I told him and he nodded.

"I have no idea who your parent would be, you are albino which overpowers any godly traits so we can't base it off your looks. That leave us with your powers, actions, and which mortal parent you knew." he told me and I nodded, completely understanding most of it.

"What do you mean my actions?" I asked him while flicking a spider off my shoulder.

"Exactly that my boy." he told me and I gave him a blank look I usually reserved for anything to do with math.

"Any child of Athena would have flipped out that there was a spider on them. You simply brushed it off. You also knew your mother which takes Athena off the guess list." he told me and it made perfect sense.

"Do all the gods have cabins here somewhere, or is only children of the twelve Olympians allowed here?" I questioned him, worried I would be thrown out for maybe not being a child of a major god.

"You wouldn't be thrown out for being a child of a minor god, but you would have to be in the Hermes cabin. All children of minor gods, actual children of Hermes, and unclaimed campers stay there." he told me. I was a little worried, Hermes had a rep for being a thief. Were his children the same way?

Thalia ran into the room we were in as Grover and Nico came out of the film room.

"We got a problem Chiron." Thalia told him.

"What did the hunters do now?" Chiron asked, mentally preparing for the worst I think.

"Surprisingly, nothing yet, I think they are still unpacking." she said, "But this is something bigger. A new cabin appeared on the edge of the cabins. A new table in the pavilion as well. They were both made of black stone and bones so I assume it was Hades, but why would he make a place for his children if he doesn't have any?" Thalia asked Chiron, whose eyes drifted over to Nico.

"I only told Annabeth and Darren, but Hades sent me a private message a few days ago. He told me he had two children at the school you all went to. I suspect Nico is one of them and Hades is waiting to claim him. As for the other, I have yet to hear what happened." Chiron told her and the color drained from her face.

"That's why Darren tried to kill Nico." she said and I paled. Darren had tried to kill the closest thing I had to a brother. I was going to gut him alive for that. No matter how hurt I got, Darren was going to stay from Nico.

"I will have to talk to him about that." was the only thing Chiron said and Thalia proceeded to tell Chiron what happened and he began to look distraught.

"That is not a good thing. Monsters respawning that only Lady Artemis can hunt. The manticore and mortals working to catch demigods. I smell the work of a Titan." he said thoughtfully.

"Grover, go show Percy and Nico around camp. I imagine Nico will be claimed at dinner and who knows for Percy. We can only hope it will be sooner rather than later." he said nodding towards me and my heart sunk. How low did people usually wait to be claimed? I wondered to myself.

"This way Nico and Perce. He led us back outside and began the tour. He showed us the rock climbing wall with real lava, the now 13 cabins, the dinner area, the canoe lake, the beach by the ocean, the armory, the archery targets, and the sword fighting arena.

Campers were scattered all over the place. I saw most of the hunters at the archery. Darren was at the ocean making the water move through the air and beat up little kids who couldn't be older than 8 or 9. Annabeth was going into a cabin that looked like a local library, but with owl decorations and a heavy smell of raid. I guess they all hated spiders more than Chiron had first said.

All the cabins were interesting and Nico said he felt drawn to the obsidian and bones. No one had told him that he was a son of Hades yet. Grover asked if I felt drawn to any of the cabins, but I wasn't. Child of a non-important minor god it is.

Grover took us back to the dining pavilion for lunch and for Chiron to introduce us.

"Welcome campers, I would like to announce that the hunters will be staying with for a short while." at that announcement, both the campers and hunters groaned. I guess the hate was mutual.

"Since they are here, we will be having out customary game of capture the flag tomorrow night." Chiron and the hunter's faces brightened. The campers looked even more upset if possible.

"On a different topic, we have two new campers. Nico DiAngelo and Percy Jackson, both unclaimed." he said and I pushed Nico forward with me. When everyone was giving us a once over, an image started to flicker over Nico's head. It was a pitch black helmet. I felt cared of it from being so close to it. I could only imagine how freaky it would be in person.

"Hail Nico DiAngelo, son of Lord Hades, god of the underworld and all it contains." Chiron announced to the camp with a look of worry on his face. The whole camp, minus the hunters and Darren gave a short bow and got back up quickly. I guess it was customary to bow during a claiming.

"Nico, the empty black table will be yours, Percy, you can sit with the Hermes table, with the other unclaimed campers." Chiron said while gesturing to a black and bone table that matched the cabin from earlier, then an overcrowded white marble table for me.

I went, got my plate of food and followed the large group of people from my new table to a brazier.

"You are supposed to put some food into the fire as a sacrifice to the gods, usually to whoever your parent is." One of the two twins who was in charge of the cabin told me.

I just dumped my entire plate into the fire and said a silent prayer.

To whoever my father is, please claim me soon. And to Lord Hades, help me find Bianca for Nico if she is still alive, he needs to find his sister again.

I went back to my table and took a seat near the two counselor guys. They had curly light brown hair and matching blue eyes.

"Well newbie, I'm Travis and the shrimp on my left is Connor." the slightly shorter one said.

"Nice to meet you guys, quick question, are you guys all kleptomaniacs like your dad, or is that just him." I asked them and they gave me identical evil smiles.

"I guess you could say we are." Connor told me and handed me a wallet. It was my wallet. I groaned and took it back and put it in the zippered pocket of my cargo shorts.

"Is there any chance I could stay in a cabin without thieves until my father claims me?" I asked them and they shrugged.

"Our dad gave permission to Chiron to use his cabin as a home for all children that are unclaimed or children of a minor god. You would need to get permission from some other god to stay in their cabin." Travis told me and I put my head down. No god would want to sponsor a loser like me.

When most people had finished eating, I waited to talk to Nico.

"We have archery after this, find us when you are done talking to your buddy." Connor told me and he wandered off.

When it was just Nico, Chiron, and I, I went to talk to Nico, who was grilling Chiron with tons of questions.

I cleared my throat and was about to ask Chiron a question of mine, when a skeleton walked out of the shadows in the corner of the pavilion. It bowed to Nico, gave me a curt nod, and handed Chiron a scroll and walked back into the shadow and vanished.

Chiron gave the scroll a once over and sighed.

"I figured as much." he said and looked at me. "Lord Hades has agreed to let you stay in his cabin until your parent claims you. He says you did a good job for someone who had no idea what a demigod was when you were trying to protect his children. He said you are the reason that the Titans don't have Nico either. He said this is the least he can do.

And to Nico, he said he left you a weapon he made himself in your cabin. He wants you to practice with me as often as you can. Since you are the leader of your cabin, you get to set the activities. Percy will just follow you in the activities." When Chiron finished telling us that, both Nico and my faces brightened.

"Yeah, I get to stay with Percy, and I get my own sword. Wahoo!" Nico and I gave a respectful nod to the shadow the skeleton had gone into.

"Thank you lord Hades." I said and turned to go to my new cabin with Nico.

After Nico and I got our stuff, from the big house and went into our new cabin for the first time.

The inside looked identical to the outside. The main stone work was black and the cement in-between was shaped like bones. There was a sitting room in the middle of the cabin and four doors leading off into other rooms. Three of the doors were labeled.

Perseus Jackson

Nico DiAngelo

Bianca DiAngelo

I checked the fourth door, it led to a bathroom. I followed Nico into his room to help him unpack. His room had a full king sized bed, with pitch black silk sheets. His furniture was all poplar wood, the wood of the underworld. He had a night stand and dresser in addition to his bed. He had a normal sized closet on one side of the room.

Nico, on the other hand, didn't notice anything as he was looking for his sword.

"Where is it? Where is it?" he kept asking himself as he was searching under the bed, in all the drawers, and the closet. I noticed a skull ring on his dresser and tossed it to him when he was paying attention to me.

"Try it on." I told him and he put in on his right ring finger.

"It's cool!" he shouted as he stared at the ruby eyes on the ring.

"Now where is my sword?" he spun around and the ring did what I thought it would do. It turned into a sword.

It was made of some pitch black metal I had never seen before. It seemed to have faces inside it screaming to be let out. It was shorter than a normal sword, but it was perfect sized, and I suspect balanced, for Nico to use affectively.

"SWEET!" he yelled and gave the sword a few test swings. The sword spun from his hand and stuck blade first in the wall next to my head.

"Oops..." he said looking down.

I pulled the blade from the wall and handed it back to him.

"You looked great, you just need some practice with Chiron." I told him and he nodded at me happily.

"Thanks Percy, I don't know what I would without you now tha-that Bianca is gone..." he said the last part quietly and started crying.

I knelt down next to him and gave him a hug which he returned.

"I know buddy, I miss her too. I miss her too." I told him as he cried into my shoulder. I felt the tears begin to pour down my face as we cried together. Soon, he fell asleep in my arms.

I put his new sword on his night stand and lay him down in his bed.

"If I have a chance to get her back, I swear I will do anything to get her back Nico, I promise." I told his sleeping figure and turned and left his room.

I went back into the main room, got my bag, and went into my new room for the time being.

The walls were plain white and there was no furniture. It had the same closet as in Nico's room. The only thing that had any definition was the tall imposing man in the center of the room, silently sobbing.

I knew who it was in an instant and I bowed.

"I apologize to you Lord Hades." I told him. "I failed to protect Bianca and I would do anything to change what happened." I told him and I felt a hand lift me out of my bow and I met the Lord of the dead's eyes.

"You did more than anyone else, including Artemis. None of them cared for my children, just what my idiotic brother told them to do. You actually cared for them. You would have sacrificed yourself for them. You sacrificed some food for me even though I am not your father. I need to thank you for taking care of my son while I am bound by laws most gods would break in a heartbeat if they could. I would take him to the underworld and have one of my servants train him, but the underworld is no place for a child." he told me, the tears still streaming down his face.

"He and Bianca are my friends, I would go, well, to your place and back for my friends." I told him and he gave a watery chuckle.

"You are unlike any demigod I have ever met. You are wise beyond your years and you have unflinching loyalty for your friends. I wish I could call you my son, but sadly, that right belongs to some other god." he told me and stood up.

"I didn't design your room yet, I didn't know what you would like. When I heard you tell the son of Hermes you wanted to stay in another cabin, I figured the least I could do for you is give you a place in mine for now. I didn't know how you would like it, so just tell me what you want and I can make it like that." he told me and I thought for a moment.

"The same furniture as in Nico's room, but everything is a light desert camo color scheme." I told him and he gave a nod and snapped his fingers. My room became exactly how I had imagined it.

"Perfect." I told him and bowed again.

"You don't need to bow to me Perseus, it just makes me feel old." he told me

"Then may I kindly ask you not to call me Perseus, it makes me feel old." I asked timidly and flinched, I had asked for something from an all-powerful god. This might not end well, no matter how kindly he treated me.

HAHAHAHAHAHA

He gave off a booming laugh and gave me a kind smile, something I never thought would be seen on the Lord of the deads face.

"That sounds fair to me." he told me, still chuckling. "Is there anything else, or shall I let you rest?" he asked me and I got an idea.

"Here." I gave him a photo I had pulled from my bag. It was a photo of Nico, Bianca and I in our school gym uniforms. We had just won first in the fall relay race. We had beaten plenty of older students and the school gave each of us a copy of the photo as a keepsake. I was on the left side and Nico was on the right. Bianca was squished between us, but we all had hug smiles on our faces.

"Th-thank you." he told me as more tears welled up in his eyes that were identical to those of Nico and Bianca. He pulled a black picture frame out of shadows and placed the photo gently inside it.

"I get to have the real deal around me all the time, you need it more than I do. I have other too, that one is the best." I told him and he gave me a wistful look.

"You may have heard some things about me and gods in general, but most of us are good at heart, we love our children and would fight anything to rid the law keeping us from them. Zeus is the only thing standing in the way, along with a few others." he told me and I nodded.

"Whoever my father is, he better not be one of the idiots keeping families torn apart. I would knock some sense into him if he was." I told Hades and he nodded.

"I imagine you would, I must be leaving now or Zeus will sense my presence. I wish you luck in finding my daughter. I you ever need help, don't be afraid to ask. We may not be allowed to help our children, but few realize we can help those AROUND our children." he told me with a smirk and he flashed away.

I went to the archery field to tell Travis and Connor about my change in sleeping arrangements.

When I got there, Chiron was teaching some younger children how to hold a bow.

"Ah, Percy, I have informed the Stoll twins of your new sleeping arrangements. They were impressed to say the least." Chiron told me. "Was that all you were here for?" he asked me and I thought for a moment.

"Originally, yes, but I was thinking maybe a legendary archery teacher could give me a few pointers?" I asked him and raised one of my eye brows. His face lit up and he gave me a full smile.

"It would be my pleasure." he told me and he grabbed a medium sized bow and quiver off a rack of them and handed them to me.

"Let's see what you got first, to see where you would fit in on the scale of archery." he told me and I raised an eyebrow at him

"Children of Poseidon are the worst archers in existence. Darren is awful, Orion was the only exception. Children of Apollo and hunters of Artemis are the best. They could hit a bulls eye in a wind storm while blinded folded that was maybe a football field away.

I whistled, if that is how good the demi-god versions of Apollo and Artemis are, Apollo and Artemis themselves must be perfect no matter the conditions.

I knocked my arrow and pulled on the bow string. I lined up with a target about 40 ft. away and let my shot go.

It landed decently close to the bull's eye, inside the closet ring to it. I turned to Chiron and he gave an excited nod.

"Excellent shot for your first try Percy." he told me. "Just a few changes and you might be close to Apollo's children in skill level." he told me and I gave him a big smile.

I worked on my archery with Chiron until it was time for dinner. Dinner was a quiet affair. Nico was still sound asleep, so I let him be. After dinner, Chiron had Thalia take me to tha armory to get a hand to hand weapon.

After an hour, I still had nothing. All the shields were too heavy for me, along with all the axes, hammers, and all of the normal sized swords. The only things I could lift were spears, short swords, and daggers. None of those felt right in my hand and I was ready to give up.

"Why don't any of these weapons work for me? Either they don't have enough reach, they are too heavy for me, and I can't handle a spear to save my life." I complained to Thalia and she shook her head.

"Follow me Percy, I have an idea." Thalia told me and led me off to what I remembered to be the Hephaestus cabin.

She knocked loudly on the door and an enormous African teen answered the door.

"Sup Thalia, what do you need crafted today?" he asked her like he was running a weapon's forge inside the cabin.

"Do I have to want to have something made to visit you?" she asked him and he raised an eyebrow at her.

"So you don't need something made?" he asked her, his voice curious.

"Well, I don't, our new friend here needs some sort of unconventional weapon since none of the standard weapons work for him." she told him and he grinned.

"Right this way man, welcome to the forges of camp half-blood. Run by yours truly, Charles Beckendorf, I go by Beckendorf though." he told me as we headed down an elevator inside their cabin. When we got to the bottom, it opened up into a large fire lit cavern. It seemed like all the children of the forge god were here, working on some project or another.

"Follow me." Beckendorf said and he led me to a larger station in the back.

"Can I see your hand for a second, I need to get a grip down, maybe one for each hand. While I am doing that, describe to me what kind of weapon you would want." he told me and gave me two wax grips to put my hand grip on.

"I need something not to heavy, but still long enough to not have to get close to my opponent to hit them. I also want it to be easy to grip in ice pick stance too." I told him and he nodded.

"I have an idea, but it might take a few days. I'll see if I can speed up the process so you can have them by capture the flag tomorrow. Any metal prefrances?" he asked me and I shook my head.

"Fine by me." he told me and waved me and Thalia away.

"Well, he seems like the nicest person here." I told Thalia and she made a look like she was offended.

"Well that's rude, after I took you to see him." she said and I cracked up. She started laughing beside me and we were both roaring with laughter.

"Well, go check on Nico, no one has seen him since you guys first came here." Thalia told me and I suddenly started to worry about him.

"I'll go check on him, is there any sceduled activities left today, or is everyone just hitting the hay?" I asked her and she made a face.

"Camp-fire sing along left. If Nico is fine, wanna ditch it with me to practice archery, from what I here, you aren't half bad?" she asked me and I was excited, I might be making another real friend.

"Sure, but won't the hunters be there, I don't see them singing with campers anytime soon, and they are archery nuts. You can go, I wouldn't want to make them uncomfortable, or get killed by them." I told her and she nodded.

"I hate the hunters, they are biased against everyone they meet if they are either a dude, or they don't agree with them. They consider me a whore because I don't want to join their forever twelve campaign to kill every dude on the planet.' she steamed and I backed away a little, she was starting to spark.

"They probably have a reason for acting the way they do, they can get away with basically whatever they want and it goes to their heads, kinda like Darren." I told her and she turned on me, oh, I am so screwed.

"You're defending them, they hate you. They would kill you the first chance they got, simply because you are a guy. I can agree Darren is the biggest asshole on the planet, he has no respect for anyone, even the gods, but the hunters are worse, at least Darren doesn't kill people for who they are." she told me and I continued backing away until I hit the wall of Nico and my cabin.

"But he tried to kill Nico for being a son of Hades, but you stopped him. Why you put up with him when you could easily be the leader of the camp instead of him confuses me." I told her and she pulled out her spear, I guess becoming a kebob is going to be added to my list of injuries of the day.

"You don't understand. I put up with him because he saved my life. He has always been a gloating jerk, but he saved my ass when I was a tree so I owe him. He holds it over me every opportunity he gets and I hate It." she shouted at me and she stormed off to the Zeus cabin. Guess I pushed the wrong button.

What she meant when she said she was a tree confuses the crap out of me, but with all the crazy crap that has happened over the past day, she probably was a tree at some point.

I went into the cabin and found Nico sitting cross-legged on the couch having a lively discussion with a ghost. He had his skull ring on and he seemed to be in a good mood.

"Percy, come here. This is Minos, he is one of the ghost judges. I tried to summon a ghost and I got him." He told me excitedly and Minos gave me a courtly bow. Something didn't feel right though.

"Well, did Minos tell you anything interesting, or have you been asking his attack stats for the past few hours?" I asked him and he laughed.

"He told me Bianca isn't dead, he told me a way to find her. I want to leave in the morning." Nico told me, jumping up and down a little. I groaned internally, Minos was up to something, I could feel it.

"Nico, I am going to ask Chiron if we can go find her in a few days. Don't leave yet and maybe I can get a group of people to help us find her. How does that sound?" I asked him and his face brightened.

"Told you he would have a better idea Minos, now go back to your job. Be nice to the souls." Nico told Minos and waved him off. Minos grumbled and sank through the black hard wood floor.

"There is a camp fire and sing-along, do you want to go to that, or stay here and play Mythomagic until bed?" I asked him and he gave me a large smile.

"Mythomagic!" he cheered and leapt up to grab his cards

We played a few games, then I sent him to bed. He gave me a fist bump and collapsed before I could complain he hadn't brushed his teeth.

I went back to my room and fiddled with the bow Chiron gave me as I lay on my bed. I wondered who my father was. Did he care about me like Hades did for Nico and Bianca? Mostly I wondered where Bianca was. I prayed to every deity I could think of that she was ok. I slowly drifted off to sleep, but was unprepared for the dreams that came.

~~~Percy's Dream~~~

 _I was on a mountain top and there was a figure struggling under a black storm cloud, like he was trying to hold the whole sky on his back. If I looked close enough at it, I could see constellations. Then I noticed who was carrying it._

 _It was me._

 _I was wearing the remains of my tux from the dance and I still had all marks from where the manticore shot me with his spikes._

 _Then the manticore walked in, leading Bianca._

 _Her hands were bound in chains and she seemed extremely upset. She had tear tracks running down her cheeks._

 _"I told you we captured you little boyfriend. We also killed your good for nothing brother." the manticore hissed in her ear and she started crying._

 _I tried to shout to her that it wasn't me holding the invisible weight. That Nico was alive and happier than he has ever been. But my mouth wouldn't work._

 _"Help me Bianca, please take the weight off Me." the other me begged her, his voice sounding like it hadn't had any water in days._

 _I tried to shout to her that it wasn't me that I was fine, but my mouth still wasn't working. I was forced to watch in silence as Bianca worked her way out of her bonds and took the weight off the other me._

 _When the other me rolled out from under it, Bianca screamed in pain. I tried to rush forward to help her hold it up, but I was frozen. Watching this was torture, worse than anything Gabe had done to me. I was fine getting hurt myself because watching someone I loved in pain and knowing I couldn't take it away hurt so much worse._

 _The other me's image flickered and turned into a taller older looking blond gut. He had dead blue eyes and a scar running down the left side of his face._

 _"Now you just hold on for a few minutes, then we will have a more permanent replacement for a sky bearer." he told her mockingly and she stared at him, disbelief in her eyes_

 _"Oh, you expected me to be your little boyfriend? Sorry, but he is on the other side of the country, probably already moved on." he mocked her and I gave a silent scream. I hadn't moved on. I would do anything to get her out from under what I now realized was the actual sky from myth._

 _"Liar." she said him and spat in his face_

 _I gave a silent cheer, she was still going, even under the weight of the sky._

 _"Here she is Luke." the manticore threw another bound figure on the ground next to the blond guy, who I guess was Luke._

 _"Ah, Lady Artemis, come to join the Titans?" he asked her with mock superiority in his voice, he was taunting her._

 _"I am going to kill you boy and hang your guts as a decoration in my camp." she growled at him and he laughed._

 _"You could try, in which case the general would stop you, but I think you would rather take the weight off this poor maiden, wouldn't you?" he mocked her again and she growled, but started moving towards Bianca. She stood up and broke her bonds and took the weight off Bianca's shoulders._

Bianca collapsed and everything started to become blurry.

~~~End Dream~~~

 **Sup my wonderful reviewers. Every comment was encouraging me to keep going so keep going I shall. I am having an internal debate as to who Percy is going to have as a parent so I need some votes.**

 **Aether (primordial of light and the sun)**

 **Poseidon**

 **Zeus**

 **Amaterasu (Japanese sun goddess. Recommended by my best friend so I am a little partial to this idea.)**

 **Helios**

 **Anything else-besides Hades or Apollo, I have already ruled them out**

 **If you think I am missing anything or you want to see something, just drop a review and tell me, I can't read minds, I am only human. No matter who Percy's parent is, I don't plan on keeping him weak. He will become a hero by the end of the story, which I plan to have go until the end of the giant war, maybe another after, but doubtful.**

 **Happy Reading- Centurion Africanus**


	3. Chapter 3-capture the flag and a kitten

**I don't own PJO or HOO**

 **Percy POV**

I woke up to Nico jumping on me.

"Get up Percy, get up. A horn went off and Thalia came by and said it was time for breakfast. Get up get up get up!" he hopped off the bed and ran around the room shouting a whole bunch of random Mythomagic stats.

I rolled out of bed and sent Nico back to his room to get dressed. I threw on my khaki cargo shorts and a yellow T-shirt and found Nico ready to go and waiting for me at my door.

"Let's go get breakfast Percy, let's go let's go." he grabbed my hand and pulled me out the door, I barely had time to see what we were passing as Nico dragged me into the dining pavilion. We got our breakfast and made sacrifices to the gods.

I noticed a small girl, maybe 8 or 9 tending to the fire with a large poker. I gave her a small wave and she looked at me shocked, like she couldn't believe I saw her. She wasn't exactly hiding. She gave me a wave back and vanished into the flames. Weird. Maybe I need to get my eyes checked.

I made the same sacrifices as I did yesterday. One to whoever my godly parent was, the other to Lord Hades, as thanks for letting me stay in his cabin.

I sat at my table with Nico and ate my food quietly, brooding over my dream. Was Bianca really forced to hold the sky, then Artemis took it from her? And why would she take the sky from me, I wasn't anything special. I was just...me.

"So Percy, what should we do today? We have capture the flag at night against the hunters, we can so beat them. What else should we do? Archery? I saw you have a bow. Is that your weapon like my sword?" he asked the last part while holding up his hand with the ring.

"I am getting a different weapon, but your sword is special, straight from your dad. It shows how much he cares for you." I told Nico, his face fell instantaneously.

"If he cares for me so much, how come I have never seen him?" he asked me and I pulled him into my side.

"He is bound by stupid rules, like you hate not being allowed to have dessert for every meal, he hates not being allowed to see his children. He cares for you and Bianca tons." I told him and he full on started crying.

"Then why isn't she here too? Why did he let Bianca get taken? Artemis was there, why couldn't he be there too?" He sobbed into my arm and I gave him a hug.

"I don't know, I just know he cares about you. Never doubt that." I told him while I rubbed his back as he kept crying. Thinking about what I knew about what might have happened to Bianca, my eyes started to water. But I couldn't cry now, I had to be strong for Nico.

"How about we find you some armor for the game tonight, that way we can beat the hunters better?" I asked him and his face brightened a little and he stopped crying.

"Ok." He said in a soft voice. He is always so active, but I wonder if it is just a shield for all the pain he is going through.

"Well what do we have here, an albino weakling and an extra from the walking dead. Both of you need to learn, this is my camp, and I choose who stays here. Both of you two are going to be asked to leave and never come back." Darren started to taunt us and I stood up and pulled Nico behind me.

"Go see if you can find Chiron and ask about the sword fighting lesson you wanted." I told ordered Nico and he scurried off to go find the kind centaur. Now I was stuck with a mindless bully brute who had no common decency or brain cells.

"There goes the zombie freak, now what are we going to do with you little pale one?" he taunted me and cracked his knuckles. We were in the middle of the pavilion, but no one tried to stop him, they just looked away. One girl at the table full of body builders glared at him a little, but she just went back to eating her platter of steroids and raw meat.

Darren raised his fist and gave me a good pop right in the face. I felt my lip split and blood start to trickle from my mouth. I scrambled away from him and dashed in the first direction I could, Darren right on my heels.

Unfortunately, that turned out to be the beach.

"Going to my home turf, not smart brat." he told me and he ripped his shirt off. A small crowd had formed and he was trying to show off his muscles.

I glared at him and felt my gut pull a little. Nothing happened, but something felt different. He reached his arm out to the water and the water sprang up to follow his commands.

He swung his arm at me and the water slammed full force into my gut. I was completely winded and barely managed to sit back up before Darren gave me a solid kick to the stomach.

The repeated blows hurt more than I expected and I lost my breakfast right there on the beach.

"EWWW" Darren mocked me, then grabbed my face and slammed in down into my own puke.

"You made a mess, now clean it up sweetie." he jeered and I struggled to breathe as he kept smashing my face into the puke covered sand. I felt my nose break with a loud crack after a while.

Darren eventually threw me sideways and away from the vomit. He gave me a wordless glare and drew his sword.

"You are so weak and pathetic, now let's carve that into your back so the whole world knows." he told me with a grin and a flourish of his sword. I mentally chuckled a bit, Gabe already beat you to it, sorry chump, try again.

"What did you say to me little freak?" he growled at me, oops, I said that out loud didn't I?

Weak and the Freak, I hope his next try is bastard, if it is, I am so calling him smelly Gabe from now on.

"Maybe I could carve bastard, since your pathetic father will never claim you." he joked and I burst out laughing. Maybe not the best timing, but he was some much like Gabe, just in better shape and without the addiction to every drug on the planet.

"What's so funny white freak?" Darren growled, stalking closer to me, his grip on his sword tightening. "You think this is funny, I'll show you funny." and he swung his sword at me.

I just managed to roll out of the way and slowly got to my feet. He had given me a small cut on my arm, but I had gotten plenty worse from Gabe. Then I noticed something, every bit of exposed skin he had sported a bright red color. He was completely and horribly sunburned. In a matter of minutes. An evil plan formed in my head.

"I was laughing at the bug on your chest." I told him smartly and he absent-mindedly slapped his chest with his hand.

"AAAAGGGGHHHH" he shirked like a little girl, hopping up and down in pain. He gave himself a once over and freaked out that he was sunburned. I cracked up.

I slowly hobbled away from him after I dunked my head in the ocean to clean the barf off. I slowly walked back up the way I came to get a fresh shirt.

Most of the camp was in the area as I came up the hill that over looked the beach. They all had stunned looks on their faces and some, cough-Thalia-cough, were trying hard not to explode with laughter at the sight of Darren running in circles swatting random parts of his body to try and get the sunburn off. How stupid could you get?

I made my way back to the Hades cabin. I passed the archery range and saw silver arrows being shot from inside at the targets, all hitting bulls eyes. Guess no archery for me right now.

Once I was back in my room, I took my shirt off and traced the three carvings on my back.

Weak, Freak, Bastard.

Were they true? That was the debate I had with myself every day. I would always be a bastard until my father claimed me, whoever he was. I was a demi-god, an albino one at that. Freak seems like the right word for me.

Weak, my least favorite, and the hardest one to ignore. It was true, I couldn't lift anything heavy. In that sense of strength, I was completely helpless. Mentally, I consider myself to be stronger than anyone. I put up with countless beatings and I kept going, putting others needs before my own wellbeing. I had no explanation for it, it just felt more important to help others rather than myself.

Then there was powers. I had never thought about it until now, all the demi-gods around me had power, where did I fall on that scale. I had no powers I could think of. I couldn't summon lightning like Thalia, I couldn't control water like Darren. Nico would probably be able to summon skeletons to fight for him some day and I sure as hell didn't have that power.

Then it hit me, the sunburn. Maybe I could somehow control the...sun? That didn't seem possible, maybe the radiation. But I am pretty sure there is no radiation god. If I could consider Apollo as my father, then maybe, but Apollo himself told me that I wasn't his son.

Apollo probably just felt bad for me and burnt Darren a little, yeah, that's what happened.

I threw a new shirt on and grabbed my bow, the hunters were probably done my now, and I could probably get a turn shooting.

I made my way to the archery targets and found gold arrows being shot. Apollo and his children, perfect chance to learn from the best.

When I went inside, most of the shooting stalls were filled, but there were a few empty ones at the far end. I noticed a guy that was helping some of the other littler campers and approached him.

"Are you the head camper for Apollo?" I asked him and he looked up at me and gave a nod.

"Yup, Lee Fletcher. Nice to meet you." he extended his arm to me and I shook it.

"Percy Jackson. I was wondering if I could use the empty shooting stations, I couldn't come earlier because of the hunters." I told him and he gave me a nod.

"Of course you can, we were supposed to be here earlier too, but the hunters almost never leave and once they decide they want to shoot, they throw everyone else out. Real pain in the ass." he told me and gestured to the empty stalls. I gave him a smile of gratitude and started shooting.

Each time I shot an arrow, it was the face of some terrible person who had hurt me.

Gabe-arrow to the face

Darren-Arrow to the gut

The manticore-arrow to the heart

The blond scarred boy-arrow to the nuts, he really earned it by hurting Bianca.

I stopped shooting when a horn sounded and Lee came to get me.

"Lunch time, don't leave your stuff here in case the hunters come in here and break everything, again." he said the last part exasperatedly, the hunters were starting to sound like a real pain in the butt, even if they had a good reason.

"Good to know, thanks." I said to him and I took my stuff and jogged back to my cabin. I left my bow and arrows in my room and I went to lunch. Nico was already at our table and he waved to me. My nose was still broken, but I guess he didn't notice.

I made my usual sacrifice in the fire and I saw the little girl again. I waved to her again and she waved back and continued poking at the fire.

When I got back to the table, Nico started his lightning fast commentary about his day so far.

"You were right, I did find Chiron and I showed him my sword, he said it was made of Stygian iron, underworld metal. Then he taught me how to use it. It was super fun. Darren was at first aid for something all morning and he won't be able to sword fight for a week Chiron said. Now he can't pick on us, isn't that great?" he told me about his morning and I chuckled a little when he mentioned Darren.

"That does sound good, but I have a feeling that once he loses his sunburn, he is going to be coming right back here to mess with me." I told him and he looked a little down hearted.

"Why you, what did you do to him?" he asked me and I shook my head, Nico was so innocent and so blind sometimes.

"I'm different, so he picks on me." I told him and his eyes began to water.

"That's what Bianca always told me." he said before he took off running back to our cabin. How could I be so stupid, I had picked that up from Bianca and now I was quoting her to him? Of course he started crying. I had to try not to cry whenever I thought of Bianca. I had to be strong, for Nico.

When lunch was over, I had no idea what to do, the hunters were probably hogging the archery range and I didn't want to be in a cabin with a sobbing Nico right now. I would go talk to him before dinner. I saw Beckendorf and I got an idea.

"Hey Beckendorf." I called to him and he turned and met with a big grin.

"Your weapons are almost done, they will be ready for tomorrow." he told me while grinning like the Cheshire cat.

"Cool, but I had a favor to ask. Since we don't know who my father is, can you maybe help me try my hand at forging, maybe we are related?" I asked and he looked shocked.

Then he gave a hearty laugh.

"Sure Percy, you have to be the most determined person to find out who your godly parent is, like, ever. I would be more than happy to help you try forging." Beckendorf told with a wide smile on his face.

Turns out, I can't forge anything to save my life. I tried several times with Beck's assistance, but no luck, just heaps of metal that are malformed. I managed to heat the metal right, I just can't shape it right, not enough muscle to lift a hammer.

"Well, that would be a no, but I would have been proud to call you my brother." Beck told me after we washed all the soot off our faces and we headed to dinner.

"Yeah, I figured it was a long shot, but it was worth a shot. It was fun even if it didn't work." I told him and he smiled at me.

"Good to hear." he told me and we went to dinner.

At dinner, Nico was sitting alone, slowly picking his way through his barbeque. When I sat down next to him and gave him a nudge, he looked up and his face brightened.

"Percy!" he exclaimed and gave me a hug.

"Good to see you to buddy, you only didn't see me for a few hours though." I told him and he shook his head.

"I have already lost Bianca, I don't want to lose you either. "He told me and I was touched. I hadn't realized how much I meant to him.

"I promise buddy, unless it is to find Bianca, I'm not leaving camp without you." I told him and he gave me a funny face.

"But I want to come with you to help find my sister." he whined, "And when she sees how awesome I am at saving her, then she will let me eat dessert whenever I want!" he exclaimed and I burst out laughing, he really loved his sugar.

"When I find her, I will tell her how good you have been here, then you can have your extra desserts, how does that sound?" I asked him and he gave me a nod.

"Deal." he told me and we finished our dinner.

After dinner, Lee and Beck helped suit me and Nico up for capture the flag. Beck gave Nico some extra small armor, which he proceeded to dump black paint on. Where he got the paint, I still don't know.

Lee gave me a set of leather archer's armor. I was grateful for it, I probably couldn't walk in the big heavy stuff the normal fighters wore.

Nico was a ground fighter protecting the flag and I was one of the archers in the trees. I picked a tree near Nico and had him wait in the shadows next to the tree. I told him if any of the hunters passed, to knock them on the back of the head with the butt of his sword. He nodded and got ready.

When the horn sounded for us to begin, the main raiding party, led by Thalia, charged forward.

We waited for a while, then we saw our first hunters, there were two of them, rather menacing ones, creeping slowly towards us. I drew my bow and waited for a good shot.

After about 15 seconds, I let my shot go and I caught the bigger, meaner hunter right in the back of the head with a blunt arrow. She went down hard.

"Phoebe!" the other girl cried and checked on her friend. Then she got up and drew her bow, trying to find where the arrow came from. As she passed by out tree, Nico sprang out of the shadows and clubbed her on the back of the head and she went down too.

He got back into the shadows and me into my tree after we pulled both girls into shrubbery. We heard some shouts from where the flag was and we both focused on that. Shortly after, a group of five hunters began running towards us, holding the flag.

I drew my bow and fired shot after shot at them. I managed to take out three of them before they were on us. Nico sprang out and attacked one of them, but she was ready and blocked his strike. Soon they were sword fighting with fancy moves I had never seen before, I guess he really did learn a lot from Chiron this morning.

I kept shooting at the girl with the flag, but I only managed to skim her a few times. I hopped down from my tree and chased after her. Trying to shoot my bow as I went. I couldn't get on target at all so I made a desperation move, I threw my bow at her.

It somehow hit her feet and she came crashing down just short of the river. She put the flag down and pulled out her hunting knives and cut herself loose from my bow. I got between her and the river and grabbed two arrows to use as knives.

"Get out of my way boy and I might not beat the tar out of you for hurting so many of the hunt." she growled and I noticed the silver circlet in her hair. I was facing Zoe, I am so screwed.

From behind me, I heard cries of "Get her!" and "Don't let her get away!" I grinned, I only had to stall Zoe a little longer.

I grasped the arrows in an ice pick stance and charged her. She matched every one of my strikes effortlessly. Then she went on the offensive. I could barely manage to block half her strikes, resulting in an array of cuts all over my body. From behind me the yells were becoming louder. I grinned, not much longer.

I pressed for one final offensive and kept trying to push her back. I kept pushing, despite my body screaming in protest. I heard the forest behind me explode with sound and I turned around.

Thalia was sprinting to the river, holding the hunter's flag. Beck shielding her from behind.

I turned back to Zoe and was met with a fist to the face. I felt my nose break for the second time that day. I fell down, the blood pouring down my face. Zoe grabbed the flag and was running to the river again. I couldn't let her win, we were so close. I did the only thing I could think of, even if it would get me killed afterwards. I tackled her legs.

She fell, her face inches from the river bed. Thalia just then leapt over the river and the whole camp cheered. The hunter's silver flag turned to a bright orange. We had won. Everyone was lifting Thalia up and cheering.

Zoe was not happy. She grabbed me by my shirt and started whaling on me.

"You stupid idiotic male. We would have won if not for your interference." she yelled at me, punching every bit of me she could reach.

"That was the point, sorry." I told her and she froze. Maybe I am better at apologizing than I thought.

"That's impossible."

"She never leaves the attic."

"Wonder who gets the quest."

I heard the whispers and looked up. I almost fainted. It was an ancient hippy lady who had been turned into what looks like a zombie. She grabbed Zoe by the wrist and spoke.

"I am the oracle, approach speaker, and ask." she said in a voice that sounded like someone was speaking through the dead body, instead of the dead body speaking itself.

"How do I help Lady Artemis?" she asked the zombie and green smoke came out and there was an image I had seen in my dream. Lady Artemis holding up the sky, with Bianca collapsed at her feet. I realized only Zoe and I could see what was in the smoke as far as I could tell.

 _Five shall go west to the goddess in chains_

 _One shall be lost in the land without rain_

 _The pale one shows the trail_

 _Hunters and campers combined prevail_

 _The Titan's curse one must withstand_

 _And one shall perish at family's hand_

After she said that, the zombie collapsed in a heap, unmoving.

The entire camp exploded. People were shouting and shouting until Chiron came into the clearing.

"Enough" he bellowed and everyone shut up. Nico came to my side, a little bloody, but with a huge smile on his face.

"I won." he told me and I beamed at him.

"Of course you did." I told him and I pulled into my side.

"I want Miss Nightshade and the other cabin counselors to come to the big house to discuss the quest." he told everyone and I nudged Nico forwards.

"I think that means you." I told him and he gave me a smile before going off with Chiron.

I went back to my cabin, past campers congratulating each other on the win, each one taking credit for it. Only Thalia could claim the win, she had captured the flag after all.

When Nico got back a little while later, he looked sad. He went right to his room. I wondered what was up with him when I heard a knock on the door.

When I answered the door, it was Zoe, I instantly flinched back and she gave me a funny look.

"While discussing the prophecy, it mentioned a pale one showing the trail. We think that it means you. Are you willing to join us on the quest to save Lady Artemis?" she asked me in a very businesslike tone.

"I'm in. "I told her and she looked shocked.

"Why would agree to save her so quickly?" she asked, obviously, she had been prepared to argue her case for hours to convince me to join.

"I'm not going for Lady Artemis, I'm going for Bianca." I told her and shut the door.

I knocked on Nico's door, hoping he wasn't already asleep. I couldn't just leave without talking to him first.

I heard a weak "Come in" from the other side and I pushed my way into his room.

It was destroyed. Clothing was thrown everywhere and Mythomagic cards were scattered. The figurines were still lined up neatly on a shelf, he clearly didn't want to break them on accident.

"So, I am going on a quest, how does that sound?" I asked him and he ran up and hugged me.

"I don't want you to leave." he mumbled into my shirt, tears pouring down his face.

"Let me tell you something. There is only one reason I am going." I pulled his head up and looked him in the eyes.

"When the zombie lady was spewing out green smoke, saying the prophecy, I saw something I am pretty sure only Zoe and I saw. It was Artemis holding something big and heavy. By her feet was another figure, it was Bianca. I am going to bring Bianca home." I told him and a fresh wave of tears hit him.

"Promise you will come home." he told me and I hesitated. Some of the lines in the prophecy were pretty brutal.

"I can't promise that, but I do promise that you will have Bianca back at the end of all this. I told him and he sobbed himself to sleep in my arms.

I put him in his bed and went back to my room. I lay down and hoped for a dreamless sleep, sadly, that wasn't the case.

~~Dream~~

 _I was in a room. Everything was a bright color, no darkness anywhere. No shadows either._

 _In the middle of the room there was a man with his back turned to me. He had bright white hair, like mine. His skin was a little darker than mine, pale instead of albino. When he turned to face me, he was wearing a pair of blue ray band sun glasses._

 _I walked closer to him and he gave me a gentle smile._

 _"There is no reason to be afraid my son." he told me and the dam broke._

 _I started crying and I flung myself into his arms._

 _"Ho-how are you here?" I asked him "Aren't gods not allowed to visit their children?" I asked him and he sighed._

 _"We aren't, but dreams are a different story." he told me and I gave him another hug._

 _"Why are you here now and why haven't you claimed me in front of the entire camp yet?" I asked him and he chuckled._

 _"Two different answers. To the first one, you are supposed to be guiding the quest. I am here to help you do that. Start in Bianca's home, then go west." he told me and I gave him a nod._

 _"Washington DC?" I asked, to make sure I was right._

 _"Yes, and to the second questions, that would only cause you more problems than solutions." he told me and I was confused._

 _"What does that mean?" I asked him and he sighed._

 _"That means that some gods aren't supposed to have children. I am one of those gods. Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades are the same way. Thalia and Darren aren't supposed to exist." he told me and I got another question._

 _"What about Nico and Bianca?" I asked and he sighed._

 _"They are another story, not mine to share. Wait, and the answer will come to you." he told me and everything began to ripple._

 _"Wait, you never told me your name." I asked him and he mouthed something that I couldn't make out and I woke up with jolt._

~~End Dream~~

I woke up, still in my leather armor from yesterday. I had been to a healer and gotten myself patched up with Nectar and I was good to go for the quest.

I packed a small bag with a change of clothes and some snacks I had left over from west-over hall, just some candy bars really. That seemed like so long ago when it was really just two days ago.

I left my cabin and went to the top of the hill where two figures were waiting. It was two hunters. Zoe and the big hunter I had shot down when she was going after the flag.

"Well, looks like you were wrong Phoebe, the male was not last." Zoe told her and she grunted.

"You bet Thalia would be the last one, I bet the male. If Annabeth comes last, no one owes anyone money.

"Who said my name?" Came Annabeth's voice as she made her way up the hill.

"Damn" Phoebe swore and she handed Zoe some coins.

"Wait up!" I heard a call, and I turned to find Beckendorf running up the hill, carrying a case.

"Here Percy." He opened the case and I found a pair of strange looking weapons.

They looked like swords, but they had hooks on the ends. They had curved coverings over where I would hold them. When I picked them up, they fit nicely in my hands, and they were light enough for me to wield. (Jet's hook swords from Avatar, the last air bender)

"What are these?" I asked him, awed at how flawlessly they were made.

"Hook swords, they are light and easy to wield, I changed my design after I saw you fighting Zoe yesterday. These will do better than arrows." he told me with a grin.

"I didn't think anyone saw that." I told him, blushing

"Thalia, Lee, and I all saw it. You did good." he told me and I blushed harder. No one ever complimented me before.

"Well thanks." I told him and I held out my hand.

"Good luck Percy, come home again." he told me, grasping my hand in a solid shake.

I went back up the hill where the hunters and Annabeth were waiting for me.

"Where are we starting?" Zoe asked me in a condescending tone.

"We start in DC, then we head west from there." I told them and Phoebe made a face.

"How do you know that, boy." she asked, sneering.

"I had a dream." I told her and she scoffed.

"Like that will do any good." she laughed.

"Demi-god dreams are no laughing matter Phoebe, they are one of the few sources I trust. It was the only thing he could have said that makes me believe him." Zoe told her and Phoebe made a face.

"I don't trust a word any male says." Phoebe growled.

"Sorry, I slept in" Thalia came jogging up the hill, her hair a complete rats nest.

"Don't worry about it, I won a bet on you sleeping late. "Zoë mocked her and she scowled at her.

"Of course you did, now let's get going, anyone know how to drive?" she asked, holding up a set of car keys and gesturing to a white van.

"I do" I volunteered, but Phoebe shut me down.

"Anyone else?" she immediately asked.

"I can drive." Zoe said, snatching the keys from Thalia.

Fine, but you better not hit any wandering guys. You have lowered the population enough." Thalia told her and Zoe scowled. I get the feeling if it weren't for all the prejudice against guys, they would get along pretty well.

"Whatever." Zoe grumbled and hopped into the driver's seat. Phoebe took shotgun and Thalia lay down in the third row of seats, leaving Annabeth and I in the middle row.

"I'm going to take a nap." Thalia announced and put her bag behind her head, out in a few seconds.

"Same." I told them and lay my head against my bag against my window. I slipped into the world of dreams once again.

~~~Dream~~~

 _I was in a garden. I looked down at myself and realized I was wearing a lion skin and a lion cloth. Definitely not my opinion of a good wardrobe choice._

 _"Follow me brave hero. He is this way." a girl with flowing black hair and wearing a light dress told me._

 _"I am aware of where the beast is, I need to defeat it, let me go and face it." I said to her in a husky voice that wasn't my own._

 _"He will surely defeat you." she told me, obviously worried about whoever's body I was in._

 _"I have bested every monster I have ever faced. I wear the nemean lion skin now, nothing can stop me." I told her, boasting of killing the nemean lion. Then I realized who I was. I was Hercules. The greatest hero of Greek mythology._

 _"Well if you insist on facing Ladon, take this." The girl held out a hair pin for me to take._

 _"What good will a hair pin do me against a monster?" I asked, laughing at her._

 _She breathed on the pin and it transformed, it turned into a sword. It seemed familiar from somewhere, as did the girl, but I couldn't put my finger on it._

 _"Does that suit you better?" The girl asked me and I was impressed._

 _"I normally fight with my hands, but I will fight with your blade to conquer the mighty beast." Hercules told her._

 _He jumped off and fought some monster. I stayed with the girl and studied her more closely. I could swear I had seen her somewhere, I just couldn't put my finger on it._

 _When Hercules returned, He was holding the sword in one hand, two golden apples in the other._

 _"Thank you pretty one." he told the girl and he began to walk away."_

 _"Wait, won't you take me with you?" she cried to him._

 _"I never intended too, but your help was most appreciated." he told her and she began to cry_

 _"But my father will cats me out, I will lose my immortality." she wailed. Hercules just laughed._

 _"You should have thought of that before you helped me pretty one." he said brandishing the sword at her._

 _Then it clicked in my head. The sword was the same one Darren had._

 _"What is this sword named?" He asked her, still pointing the sword at her._

 _"Anaklosmos, or Riptide, the tide that catches one off guard." she said, tears streaming down her face._

 _"Good, goodbye pretty one." he said to her and he walked off, juggling the apples in one hand, the sword in his other._

 _I turned back to the girl and I was hit with another revelation, it was Zoe._

~~End Dream~~

I woke when I felt a push on my arm.

"Time to get up Perce." Thalia told me and I hopped out of the van and stretched.

I looked at the others as they got out of the van. My eyes lingered on Zoe, there wasn't a doubt in my mind she was the girl betrayed by Hercules.

I turned to face the building we stopped in front of. It was a burger joint.

"We are stopping for food, then heading west." Zoe told us and I nodded.

"I am going to go look at some of the museums." Annabeth said, pulling out a Yankees hat. When she put it on, she vanished.

"Whoa!" I exclaimed.

"Careful Annie." Thalia called to no one in particular.

We went into the burger joint and ordered. When we got out burgers, Thalia grabbed hers right off the plate and dug in.

"Mmmm" she moaned in pleasure, burger juice dripping down her chin.

We ate our burgers, mostly in silence sometimes I would chat with Thalia, but she was consumed with her burger most of the time.

When we were almost done, Annabeth appeared in the middle of the restaurant.

"We gotta go, like now." she said, out of breath.

"What happened?" Zoe asked.

"There was Luke, and some guy called the general," she started, but Zoe cut her off.

"The general cannot be here, he is trapped far away." she said, with a steely resolve in her voice.

"Well he was in the Smithsonian, and he broke a marble floor, I think that is something. Who is the general?" she asked.

"Not important, show me where you found him." Zoe demanded, but Annabeth shook her head. He sent Sparti after us, he had silver cloth that he gave them. I am sure they are hunting you Zoe. We have to move." she said and Zoe stared at her.

"Did you say Sparti?" she asked quietly.

"Yes, he also mentioned a little surprise he was sending our way." she said, trying to recall as much detail as she could.

"Then we need to move." Zoe said and we all got up and ran to the van.

We were driving when a helicopter started shooting at us, just like back at the academy.

"More mortal mercenaries! Keep driving until you get to a tunnel!" Annabeth called to Zoe.

Phoebe in the meantime, had stuck her entire upper half out the shot gun window and was trying to shoot down the helicopters with arrows. She managed to hit one of the engines and the copter had to pull away, leaving two more.

We finally got to a tunnel and we pulled the van across the entrance, blocking the lanes of traffic.

"We got a shield, now where do we go?" Zoe called back to us.

"Go to the sub way tunnels, then we can find our way to a train station." I called back to her and she gave me a nod.

We hopped out of the van and dashed to the subway service tunnel that connected to the driving tunnel. There were plenty of upset mortals, but who cares. Just as we made it to the service tunnel, we heard a loud roar. We all turned around. It was a lion, the size of an suv. It had glistening gold fur and rows of deadly sharp teeth.

"Nemean Lion!" Phoebe cried and we all ducked back for cover.

Zoe and Phoebe drew their bows, Thalia, her spear and freaky Medusa shield, Annabeth pulled out a long dagger and her invisibility Yankee's cap. I drew my hook swords from the back sheath I had them on. I have no idea how none of the mortals noticed any of this happening, but I remember Thalia saying something about mist earlier, so there was probably an answer in there somewhere.

We all jumped up from the divit where the service tunnel was and charged. Zoe and Phoebe perched themselves on the hanging lights in the tunnel after they climbed up to them and tried shooting the lion, but the arrows just bounced off.

"Damn, can't use lightning in this damn tunnel." I heard Thalia as she stared up at the ceiling.

Annabeth had vanished, but the monster kept flinching in random directions, like it was being pushed away by a dagger.

I had my swords ready and I charged alongside Thalia. The lion swiped at me, but I slide under the paw and right under the lion. I tried to swipe at its underbelly with my hooks, but it just bounced off. When I came out the backside of the lion, its tail flicked across my face and gave me a small cut above my left eye.

The lion turned at random for a second and swiped at empty air that wasn't really so empty. Annabeth let out a shriek as she got hit back, managing to dodge the claws, but still getting knocked out on a side wall of the tunnel. Thalia charged at the lion at the same time I did, each from different sides. The lion turned to Thalia and gave a swipe at her, but she blocked it away with her shield. I jumped on his back and grabbed on for dear life, my hooks snagging on the lion's ears.

It roared in fury as I tried to stay on when I got an idea. I got one of the hooks ready and when it roared again when Zoe hit it in the eye, I moved my hook forward and snagged the inside of the lion's mouth. I then did the same with my other hook. I pulled as hard as I could and just managed to pull the lion's mouth open. It's pink tongue open for the world to see.

"Shoot the mouth!" I called to Zoe and Phoebe and its mouth was soon turned into an inside out porcupine. It was still alive, but roaring in pain. Thalia ended it when she stuck her spear right into the roof of the lion's mouth.

When it burst into golden dust, I fell onto what looked like a giant golden shag carpet. When I picked it up, it was a lion skin cloak. Zoe looked at it with disgust.

"Who wants it?" I asked the group. Thalia was too busy feeding Annabeth some ambrosia stuff and Zoe and Phoebe both turned it down.

"You opened the lion's maw and came up with a way to defeat it. It belongs to you." Zoe told me bitterly. I got an idea.

I took one of my hook swords and burst the gas tank on our van. Once there was a small pool of gasoline, I threw the lion fur and soaked it in the gasoline. I pulled it away from the gas tank and when everyone else was far enough away, I threw a match from my bag onto it.

To Lady Artemis, tell Bianca that Percy is on his way.

The lion skin burned into nothingness. Leaving a faint scent of pine in the air. Zoe stared at me like I was crazy.

"Why would you burn the cloak?" she asked, completely dumb founded.

"I'm no Hercules, I mean have you seen my noodle arms, I can't do anything right." I told her and she looked grateful and headed into the tunnel, followed by Phoebe, Thalia, and Annabeth with me taking up the rear.

When we made it to a subway station, we changed trains for about an hour until it was nearly sunset and we had found our way to a train station. We were searching for a train that would take us west, but the farthest one only west to Chicago.

It was getting cold, seeing as it was December and places that weren't camp still had normal weather.

"Let's go over there." I pointed to a faint light I saw in the distance. We all made our way over to it and found a hobo roasting hotdogs over a fire barrel.

"Howdy troops." he called and we looked at each other skeptically, was this old dude really as harmless as he seemed.

"Come join me round the fire for some fresh cooked wieners." he said giving us a grin. All his teeth were perfect. Not something commonly seen in hobos. I kept my guard up.

"Sure!" Thalia replied enthusiastically. She Phoebe and Annabeth and sat down on crates and grabbed some hot-dogs off the skewer he was offering to them. Zoe sat down as well, but didn't take a dog. I remained standing, wary of the guy still.

"What you doing here in a train yard, I know of some other places that would be nicer for you to stay the night." I asked him and eyed me, his bright blue eyes were sharp and intelligent, he was certainly no ordinary hobo.

"Why, I'm just admiring this here train. It be heading west in a bit." he said, as if daring me to contradict him. I looked at the train car. It had the faded logo, Sunset railways.

Sunset, blue eyes, bright teeth.

I relaxed at once and plopped down next to Annabeth and snatched a dog off the skewer.

"Sounds like we got a ride guys." I said to the others and Zoe nodded in agreement.

We all turned to face the train line and saw the engine just starting to spit smoke.

"We gotta get on, now!" Thalia called and I pulled one of the doors open. We all hopped in the two story storage cart and turned to thank the hobo from the car, but he was gone, just an empty skewer and a smoking fire barrel left behind.

We turned to see what we had to share our compartment with and were greeted with dozens of deluxe cars.

Zoe and Phoebe made their way to a pair of silver jeep wranglers and hopped in, locking the doors so they wouldn't be disturbed for the rest of the night.

Annabeth hopped in a convertible bright red lambo and lay down in the back. Thalia, had found the ladder up to the second floor and was motioning me to follow her up.

I followed her up and she hopped into a black viper and cranked a stereo she hotwired in a few seconds, I guess being a daughter makes hotwiring cars easier than normal. She glanced at me and patted the seat next to her. I hopped shot gun and listened to the song. I couldn't put my finger on what it was until Thalia turned it off.

"What song was that?" I asked her and she grinned a little.

"I thought you would like that one, it's called Kick Me, by Sleeping with Sirens."

"I felt like that song was made just to apply to my life." I laughed and she gave me a look.

"How so?" she asked me and I thought for a minute.

"Well, No one, except maybe Nico and Bianca, maybe my mom, know who I really am. And on top of that, every time I fall down, there is always someone there to make it worse." I told her and she gave me a look.

"You've never mentioned your mother, what is she like?" she asked me and I felt my eyes water.

"I, I don't want to go there yet Thalia, I haven't told anybody that story yet and we only just met." I told her, getting out of the car slowly.

"I know a bit about problems with mothers, try Me." she said and I cringed, I knew her mother couldn't be like mine.

"No Thalia." I told her and wandered to the far corner and hopped into the back seat of a random car.

"She never did know when to back off." a voice said from the front. It was the hobo.

"Lord Apollo." I nodded my head to him and he chuckled.

"Good job figuring it out kid, but call me Fred. Zeus really cracks down on gods who help quests, but no one hurts my little sis and gets away with It." he growled the last part and I chuckled.

"Fred the helpful and slightly vengeful god, got a ring to it don't you think." I asked him and realized what I had said. I hope he doesn't blast me for that. I have really been pushing my luck the past few days.

He just chuckled a little.

"Good one kid, I stand by what I said before, I wish I could call you my kid." he said, shaking his head a little.

"Thanks for helping me with Darren yesterday." I told him and he shook his head again.

"That was all you kid. I felt you using sun energy to give him one hell of a sunburn. Getting him to slap himself was a stroke of genius though." he burst out laughing.

"If only someone was videotaping it, I could watch it over and over again." he kept laughing, but I was even more confused.

"So you didn't disguise yourself and appear to me in my dream?" I asked him and he grew a serious face.

"So, you got a dream with a god saying they were your parent, what did he look like?" he asked me, looking curious.

"He had pale skin and shock white hair, like mine. He had the same jaw line as me. He also had on blue tinted ray band sunglasses." I told Apollo and his face drained of all color. He was pale as, well, me.

"I gotta go, don't tell anyone else about your dream, just keep it to yourself, I just need to check on some stuff." he told me and vanished in a flash.

I lay down in the back seat, wondering what had gotten him so worked up. I slowly drifted off to sleep.

 **Whoa, chapter done. I am trying to churn out as many chapters as I can since I will be in Greece enjoying the sights for 2 weeks and I probably won't post in that time. As far as the vote, the response for Aether was overwhelming. He is going to be Percy's father. I am going to be writing a story in the future based on Japanese mythology, but that will be a ways in the future when I finish one of my two active stories.**

 **Kick me is one of my favorite songs, so I just had to include it.**

 **Happy reading- Centurion Africanus**


	4. Chapter 4-into the junkyard

**I don't own PJO or HOO.**

 **Bianca POV**

I was laying on the ground next to Artemis as she held up the sky. She had told me everything about Greek mythology and the situation we were in. I watched her struggle under the sky until she straightened, looking full of energy.

"Who the hell..." she started and then grew a confused look.

"Do you know anyone named Percy?" she asked me and my heart soared. I had always liked Percy, he was so sweet with Nico and helped watch after him when I couldn't. I think I am slowly falling for him.

"Yea, why?" I asked her and she gave me a funny face.

"He gave me the largest sacrifice I have received since ancient Greece. He also said to pass a message to you, he is on his way." when she said that, my heart went wild in my chest. Percy was coming. He would save me, I knew it. He was the greatest person I had ever met. I was definitely falling for him now.

"You like him don't you?" she asked me, disgust clear in her voice.

"Yes." I answered her strongly. Nothing she could say could sway my opinion on Percy, he was the greatest.

"He will fail you in the end, you should join the hunt." she said, but I didn't listen to her, Percy was coming, I was saved.

 **Percy POV**

I woke to Thalia knocking on my window. I could tell it was still very early and the train was still moving.

I opened the door and she hopped shotgun while I was in the driver's seat.

"Sorry about last night, I shouldn't have pried." she said, I could tell apologies were not her strong suit.

"It's fine, I pried back at camp, consider us even." I told her and she smiled a little.

"How are you so damn kind all the time, you act as though the world has never been mean to you, but you were at military school. What made you so special." she asked, her electric blue eyes were unnerving me, so I gave her the best answer I could without revealing too much.

"The world is a cold place, but there is always a silver lining, a light in the dark." I told her and she shook her head.

"Not always, you obviously haven't been in many tough situations to not know that." she said and I was a little hurt, being an optimist was a skill of mine, forged in the hardest of times.

"You do then?" I asked her and she gave me a steely look. No matter how hard her eyes were, the tears slowly making their way down her face betrayed her.

"Let me tell you what I know of pain." she started her story.

"I was born to an actress. She was so happy she had caught the Lord of the skies attention. He told her and it ruined her life. After I was born, he stopped coming around. Mom blamed me and would get drunk all the time and yell at me. When I was 10, I snapped. I had had enough, so I ran away. I met someone else when I was traveling. His name was Luke. He was a son of Hermes.

We traveled together for years. He was a few years older than me, I looked up to him like he was my brother. When we were in California, we met another demi-god runaway. It was Annabeth. She was 7 to our 12 and 14 respectfully. She came at us with a hammer, thinking we were monsters. Luke gave her a knife, the same one she uses today, and she joined our little group. We ran for months before Grover found us and led us to camp. We almost made it.

We had gotten slowed by hordes of monsters Hades had sent to kill me. I told them to keep going, that I would hold them off. I drew my shield and spear and fought for my life. It wasn't enough. I was laying on the ground, about to die when my father-she spat the word like it was poison-decided to have pity on me and turned me into a pine tree. The big one on the hill.

I sorta remember what happened, like I was in a coma. When I woke up, the golden fleece was hanging in the tree above me, where Darren put it. He holds that over my head almost every chance he gets. That is why I don't just kick his sorry ass when ever he does something stupid, I owe him."

When she finished, I was slightly confused, "Isn't Luke the evil blond guy working for the Titans?" I asked her and she growled in response.

"Now you see why life is so miserable, my brother and best friend for the longest time betrayed me and Annabeth. He was our brother and he still hurt us." she said and I remembered part of the prophecy.

"Didn't the prophecy say that family was going to kill someone?" I asked her and she shrugged.

"I took that as me spilling his sorry guts on the ground." she said, scowling.

"Careful, you are starting to sound like Zoe." I joked with her and she gave me a withering look.

"She warned me Luke would betray me one day and he did. She hasn't said it yet, but I can feel the 'I told you so' coming." she said, looking more and more upset.

"She may surprise you." I told her and handed one of my candy bars from my bag. She tore into the candy like a hungry wolf and when she had finished it, she looked at me expecting more.

"Really." I asked her and she grabbed my bag and grabbed two of my remaining four candy bars and scarfed them down.

"Not cool." I told her and she rolled her eyes, her mouth full of my candy.

"We stopped, lets go." Annabeth called to us from the bottom of the ladder.

Phoebe and Zoe were eating trail bars and Annabeth was eating some preserved meat from her bag. I was eating one of my remaining candy bars and Thalia stole the last one.

"We have to make a plan." Zoe said and I nodded.

"I know the final destination now, we have to go the sky." I told them and Zoe's face hardened.

"I thought as much, the stop in DC gave us a warning to the threat that awaits us. We must be prepared for what is waiting. Until then, we are in a little town somewhere in the desert." she said and my mind once again remembered part of the prophecy.

One shall be lost in the land without rain.

"Nobody get lost." I said and everyone paled. i had reminded them someone would not make it out of the desert.

When we got out of the train, it took off again, going back east. We wandered through the town until we found an old closed down Taco place, it seemed to be the only building that served food, it was closed down now though. I saw a little elf looking boy about my age darting in and out of alley ways, but he looked like a runaway, so I left him be.

We set up a small campsite outside a HUGE junkyard that seemed to stretch for miles. A large black limo pulled up and we all drew our weapons, expecting more mercenaries, but a large built man in a pair of red tinted aviators came out.

"I am looking for a Mr. Percy Jackson." he said and I flinched, was this brute who smelled like a gym sweat pool really my dad?

"What do you want?" I asked him and he grinned a little.

"You got moxie kid, not my kid though, I know what you are thinking." he said and gestured to the car again.

"Where will we go?" I asked him, still extremely apprehensive, I could tell he was a god, I just wasn't sure which one.

"No where, the lady would just like to have a few words with you." he said twirling a small dagger on his finger, like he was trying to use it to scare me into just going along with what he said. The others seemed scared of the man, but I was getting upset at him.

"Who would that be and who would be, her bell boy." I asked him and his eyes lit on fire behind his sunglasses. I could feel myself getting angered, but that's when it fell into place.

"Lord Ares." I bowed to him and he seemed a little shocked by my sudden behavior change.

"Good thing that is cleared up, now get in the limo, for all you others, I believe you have a few bags of bones to deal with." he said, distaste in his voice

As he said it, a dozen skeletal warriors in different time period army uniforms sprang up around them. They drew their weapons as Ares forced me into the limo and stood guard outside.

When I got a look at who was inside the limo, I was in shock.

"Bianca?!" I asked, before I noticed the differences that were ever so slight. The person in front of me carried herself differently. She had kaleidoscope eyes, not Bianca's usual soft black. She was also-cough-more endowed in the front-cough. I knew who it was then.

"Lady Aphrodite." I said to her and bowed my head. She squealed and I picked my head up, confused.

"You are quite interesting." she said, licking her lips a little, it made me incredibly uncomfortable.

"Why am I here?" I asked, trying to get away from her without her noticing too much.

"You are the only interesting person on the quest."she simply replied and I was confused.

"And that means what exactly" I asked her and she smiled even wider.

"The hunters are useless to me, Artemis made me swear long ago not to make them fall for men. The other two are both interested in the same person, but it has been doomed for years. You, on the other hand, are fresh meat. You aren't here for the same reason they are, are you?" she asked smirking. I didn't like how talked to me like I was a stupid puppy and her calling me meat was crossing a line.

"I am here to save my friend, that's all Aphrodite, now if you don't mind, I am going to help my friends throw a beat down on some skeletons." I told her and started getting out of the limo.

"Remember to be careful in my husband's domain, he only lets his children go in there safely." she called to me as I leapt out of the car and drew my hook swords and charged a skeleton that was about to impale Thalia on a spear. It was wearing the oldest uniform, a spartan warrior uniform.

"Thanks." she told me as I helped her up.

We fought the skeletons for a while, but we couldn't kill them. No matter how many times were tore them into pieces, they just put themselves back together and kept coming.

We were forced to retreat into the large junk yard. I swear I saw the small boy again, but I was probably wrong.

I was fighting one of the skeletons, but he knocked my sword away and I grabbed the first thing I could and drove it right into it's skull.

The sparti turned to ash as soon as the thing I grabbed hit it's skull. That was certainly new.

I looked down at what I was holding and nearly burst out laughing. It was a Hades mythomagic figurine. That gave me an idea.

I pulled all the pictures I had of Nico, Bianca and I that I had brought and my hand brushed against something I thought I had left in my cabin. It was Bianca's green beret. I threw the pictures on the ground and lit a match. I burned all of them. I held Bianca's hat in my hand, then put it on. I watched as the pictures burned.

Help us Lord Hades. The dead are within your realm, please get rid of them.

When the pictures had finished burning, I looked up. The sparti were being slaughtered by hordes of lesser undead. They eventually secured the sparti and dragged them back into the underworld. The skeleton who was leading the lesser skeletons wore an all grey confederate uniform. He gave me a salute and began to walk back to the crack in the earth that the dead had come from.

"Thank you, do you have a name?" I asked the good sparti and it shrugged.

"How about Gray?" I asked him and he gave me a toothy grin and a nod and leapt back into the earth.

"What do ya know." I said to no one in particular. I continued through the junk yard. Holding a hook sword in one hand, the mythomagic figure in the other.

When I found the girls, they were in pretty bad shape. Annabeth had a cut on her arm that looked pretty bad, Thalia was out like a light, a small lump forming on her forehead. Zoe and Phoebe both had some small cuts, but nothing major.

"Boy, what happened to the Sparti?" Phoebe demanded on me before even looking at me. Both Her, Zoe's, and Annabeth's backs were to me, they were looking at Thalia, trying to get her to drink some nectar.

"I prayed to Hades and gave him a small sacrifice, then a crap ton of skeletons burst from the earth, led by another Sparti. They grabbed all the evil sparti and returned back to the underworld, the good lead Sparti seemed nice, so I named him Gray." I told them as Thalia started to come around.

"What would Hades want from you as a sacrifice male." Zoe spat at me, trying to coax Thalia from unconsciousness.

"Pictures of his children." I told her as the world began to spin.

Thalia chose that moment to wake up and look around.

"Holy crap Percy, what happened to you!" she exclaimed, pointing at my chest. Thats when I realized I had a huge cut going from the bottom of my left collar bone, right down to my hip.

"I didn't even notice." I managed to get out before collapsing.

 **Zoe POV**

I tended to Thalia as the idiotic male came up with some story of getting Hades to eliminate the Sparti, an obvious lie, Hades was an evil and dark god, incapable of compassion. And naming a Sparti, who had ever heard of such a thing.

When the idiotic daughter of Zeus finally woke up, she glanced up and pointed to the male, I wasn't paying attention to her at all really, she was just a lost cause, she would never join the hunt so I have no reason to care about her opinions.

I glanced up at the male to make it seem like I was listening, and the left half of his torso was covered in blood. He just seemed to notice himself and he collapsed.

Phoebe and I both got up and left to set up a camp for four. The male could rot in the cold for all I care. We were halfway through setting up camp when Annabeth came running over.

"Nectar and ambrosia aren't doing enough, he needs stitches and neither Thalia or I know how to give him them." she informed us and I rolled my eyes, but got up to help none the less.

When I reached the male, he was an even sicker shade of pale than he usually was. He was weak, as all males were, but he was especially so.

His shirt was ruined beyond recognition, sticking to his body. I could see more and more blood seeping out of his body, the nectar and ambrosia are keeping him from bleeding out, but not healing the cut.

I bent down and drew my knife.

"Whoa, killing a male in this condition has no honor Zoe, an all time low even for you." Thalia hissed at me and I rolled my eyes, she was dense and hopeless.

"I am going to cut his shirt away to give him the stitches, now step aside foolish girl." I barked at her and pushed my way past her and began to work on the shirt. I cut off easy enough. Annabeth handed me a bucket of water and I dumped it on him. Off came the blood, but more than that came to light. His body was covered in scars. He had them covering his upper arms and chest. His back probably had more, but he was laying on it now so only time would tell.

The gash itself was bleeding out at a slow and even pace. I started my work, ignoring Thalia and Annabeth's exclamations about his scars. I couldn't care less about how he got them unless...he was abused.

That seemed to be the only explanation. His back probably had carvings on it, most abusers like to have their message set in. But the question was who. Please let it be Darren, I would like nothing more than to slaughter him where he stands.

When I finished stitching him back up, I grabbed another bucket of water from Annabeth, she had gotten it from the nearby town, and dumped it on him again. I rolled him over and my suspicions were confirmed. He had three carvings in his back.

Weak

Freak

Bastard

I was shocked, whoever had done this had to be in his family, who else would have known about his father being absent. Unless it was a bully who spied on him or made him spill. He had to be one of the worst abuse cases I had ever seen.

I finished washing off the blood, ignoring the looks on Annabeth and Thalia's faces. I was in as much shock as them, I just hid it better. I slipped an extra shit he had in his bag on him and put the beret that he was wearing under his head as a pillow.

"Let's go back to the campsite." I told the others, but they stayed put. If they wanted to freeze in the cold with the male, it wasn't my problem, but maybe he wasn't like the others. He obviously knows first hand how it feels to be abused. Maybe him being nice and caring was genuine, not just the front I had been passing it off he was the first good male.

I thought about it as I stared at the stars. There were so few compared to ancient Greece. I missed seeing all the stars. They made the night sky a true wonder. I stared at the stars until I drifted to sleep.

When I woke, it was morning, we had today and tomorrow to get Lady Artemis back to Olympus so she wouldn't miss the winter solstice meeting. A tight schedule, but we can make it.

The boy was awake and Thalia was feeding him ambrosia. He looked dazed and confused. He was lucky to be alive and that Thalia was such a bleeding heart.

We started out across the junkyard, having camped at the entrance. I knew better than to touch anything here, as did Phoebe, but I was waiting for the male to give in to his greed and start taking some of the valuable magical objects around, but he just kept going forward, the beret covering his eyes. I knew they had to have a haunted look in them. He had been trying to hide the fact he was abused, now his secret was out. Darren was going to have a field day on him and he would be further shunned.

We were about halfway through the junkyard when a HUGE iron giant rose up, holding a sword.

 **Thalia POV**

I saw the scars, I saw the carvings, I couldn't believe it. Someone had been abusing him. To an extreme extent by the looks of it. Even in the mortal world, He could have gone to authorities. I thought I understood him when he said he had family problems. Was it his mother that beat and carved on him, or was it someone else.

Who would do something so horrific to someone so kind. Percy doesn't act like he would hurt a fly. He is nice and respectful, barring some sarcastic courage he seemed to have. Other than that, he was good person. I don't think there are many good people like him left in the world.

I fell back to talk to him, he had a green beret I saw briefly at West-over on his head covering his eyes.

"How'stiches?" I asked, trying to get him to open up.

"Healing, thanks for the ambrosia this morning." he simply responded. Even distraught and injured, he was kind.

"Who gave you your scars?" I asked bluntly, skipping any small talk and getting right to the point.

"Depends on the scar." he said, drawing a few lines on his, as if tracing the scars, which he probably was. Phoebe hadn't seen the scars yet, thats fine though, she would have insulted hi m like Darren, not something he needed right now.

"Anyone I would know?" I asked, hoping for Darren.

"Well there was this sparti one time, caught me right here." he said as he traced his stitches, grinning a little. His sarcasm was a pleasant release from his usual somber tone.

"Besides that dummy." I asked, my curiosity getting the better of me.

"Darren gave me one on my left bicep when he beat and I fell onto a broken beer bottle." he said, lifting his sleeve and tracing a curved scar that was decently sized.

"I gotta kill him for that, any others?" I asked, wanting more reasons to rip Darren apart, humiliate him.

"They are all from bullies, Darren's included." was all he said, but something was bothering me.

"Which bully carved into your back." I asked, determined to get a real answer.

"The meanest one." was all I got back.

I was going to keep grilling him for answers, but the ground started shaking. Percy and I turned around to be met with the face of a giant robot with a sword.

"Who took something, looking at you male." Phoebe yelled at us, but Percy shook his head.

"I haven't touched anything." he said, which was true, I had been watching him all morning, not in a creepy way, a concerned one.

"Annabeth!" I called and she blushed a little.

"They were ancient schematics for the parthenon, how could I not!" she cried out and ducked under a sword swing from the behemoth, it had to be at least 60 ft tall.

It stood between us and the entrance, swinging its sword at anyone who tried to leave. One shall be lost in the land without rain, now for the moment of truth.

Zoe and Phoebe were on separate junk piles, shooting it with arrows, but they bounced off harmlessly. Annabeth had put her cap on and was trying to a weak point I think, or she was just leaving, but probably the first option. Percy had drawn his swords, but he was concentrating on the sun, swords probably wouldn't do much to the metal titan in front of us anyway.

"It's Talos!" Annabeth called out from somewhere to the left.

"No, too small, maybe a prototype." Zoe called back as she leapt off her junk pile onto another one as the Talos dummy tried to crush her with his sword, maybe the word prototype was a sore spot for him.

"Try lightning Thalia." Percy called from my right, trying to flank the Talos.

I concentrated and pulled down on the sky. I opened my eyes and the lightning struck down from the sky, but it ABSORBED the blast. It's eyes became brighter and it's movements faster. Like I had just given him a case of monster.

"Nope, don't do that again." Annabeth called before she tripped and fell into a junk pile, just dodging another sword swing at her. Talos shifted his attention to me. He gave me a face that I swear said, More power please. Complete with the puppy dog eyes and everything.

It swung its sword at me and a lucky shot got through. I got knocked back about 20 ft to the right, crashing next to Percy. I felt more than half my ribs break. Luckily the sword was extremely dull, or I would be in two pieces right now.

Talos turned his attention to the hunters, trying to knock them out of their junk piles. Percy gave me some ambrosia, which I gratefully accepted.

"It would take a miracle to beat that thing." I said with a mouth full of ambrosia.

"Or not, look at it's eyes, they have a hollow gleam to them, if I could get in one, I could shut it down from the inside, maybe trigger it to explode." he said in a grim tone.

"Not happening buddy, we all make it out or none of us." I told him and he shook his head.

"One shall be lost in the land without rain. I have to do this, all you guys have way more experience than me, I'm the weak link, it has to be me." he insisted and pulled a small figure out of his pocket.

"Give this to Nico, I found it on the edge of the junkyard, it is the only one he doesn't have." he handed me a small figure, it's label on the bottom read Hades.

"You can't seriously be about to do this!" I cried, he was such a good person, he didn't deserve to die.

He pulled off his beret and handed it to me. "This is Bianca's. Give it back to her, and tell her, tell her..." he trailed off at the end. He leapt up and charged the robot.

He had his hook swords out and he had the gotten the robot's attention. The robot swung a downwards smashing blow at him, but he sidestepped it and hooked his swords of the top of the robot's sword. When Talos lifted his sword again, Percy went up with it. His face grim with determination.

When he was high enough, he pushed off the sword and leapt straight for Talos's eye.

"FOR BIANCA!" he yelled out, like a tribal warcall. He went right through the left eye. Nothing happened at first, then the robot began to twitch. It shook and sparked.

"Get down!" Zoe called and we all dove behind separate junk piles.

KA-BOOM

The explosion ripped through the air I felt the heat from behind my junk pile. When the exploding stopped, I looked around my pile and saw nothing remained. Not charred Percy, no Talos, nothing was left.

"He sacrificed himself, for us." Annabeth said as we all trudged out.

We found an old pickup at the exit and I hopped in, the keys were still in the ignition. When I turned them, the engine roared to life. It was about noon now, but I couldn't get Percy's last words to me out of my head as we continued west.

"Tell her I love her."

 **Percy POV (You really thought I would kill the main character this early)**

I knew what I had to do I gave Thalia the beret and figure and sent her with my message. I let my body go on autopilot.

Sooner than I expected, I was flying right into the eye.

"FOR BIANCA" I yelled out and fell right through the window. Once I had gotten my bearings, I saw a control panel that was half fixed. I took my sword and started bashing it. I saw several levers so I pulled them all. I saw a box with a lightning bolt image. The power core.

I leapt onto it and ripped it apart. I felt the electricity run through my body. I felt the explosion and the last thing I saw was the ground quickly becoming farther away.

 **I had to add the last tid bit. I am in Greece now and it is awesome. Gave me an awesome idea for Hunter's of Fate. Any suggestions are welcome. For those who are not yet aware, I am making Percy's dad Aether.**

 **New vote-Where Percy ends up**

 **-With Calypso**

 **-Leo in the junkyard**

 **-other**

 **Happy reading- Centurion Africanus.**


	5. Chapter -the Titans curse

**I don't own PJO or HOO**

 **Vote results**

 **6-Leo**

 **3-Calypao**

 **2-Hades**

 **1-Aether**

 **Leo it is, let the games begin...**

 **Percy POV**

I had no idea being dead would hurt so much. Or smell like oil and burnt flesh.

I opened my eyes, I saw the sun above me. I tried to get up, but everything hurt. Not like hurt, but excruciating pain tearing through all my limbs and chest. I couldn't even move my jaw.

"Whoa dude, you blow up my robot, break like, all your bones, then wake up an hour later and try to start moving. Bad idea." I heard from somewhere off to my right.

"Just chill. Your group thinks you're dead probably, just heal now and find them later." I could see who was speaking now, it was a Latino looking elf that I had seen throughout town. He looked about 12 or 13, covered in motor oil and grease, like he was trying to fix everything in the junk yard.

"Bianca." I managed to get out before everything went black again.

~~Percy Dream~~

 _I was back in the white room. The tall pale man who said he was my father was standing off in the distance. He had a huge smile on his face._

 _"Are you really my dad?" I asked him, unsure._

 _"Yes, now come give your old man a hug." he said and I hugged him, it felt right. It my gut, I knew he was my father._

 _"Can I have your name now, I have been struggling with an identity crisis as of late." I asked and he chuckled._

 _"You have more than earned it, but sadly, it is not time yet. Just know that I am extremely proud of you. You sacrificed yourself for people you barely knew and showed extreme courage." he said, still hugging me. IT felt good knowing my dad was proud._

 _"A clue to who you are at least?" I asked, finally letting go._

 _"I am not an Olympian." he said, his mouth in a little grin._

 _"Good to know, I was thinking Zeus for a little bit."_

 _"He could only wish to have a son as good as you." he answered, a smile still on his face._

 _"So what happened to the rest of the quest and how did I survive the explosion?" I asked, hoping Bianca and Thalia were alright. The daughter of Zeus had grown on me over time._

 _"You survived because you are immune to fire. The fall nearly killed you, but your new friend in the junkyard saved your life. He has a good heart, trust him." he said and I nodded, Guess the Latino elf was on Santa's good list._

 _"As for the rest of the quest, I will show you. This will be the last you see of me for a while though. Once you are healed, train with your new friend. Your powers will come to you now that I have unlocked them. Even with the lock, you still managed to give the sea spawn a killer sunburn." he finished with a grin._

 _I gave him one last hug before he snapped his fingers and I found myself watching a mountain top, the four remaining members of the quest, slowly making their way up._

 **Thalia POV (Percy is watching as this happens.)**

After securing the Opiotourus and a quick pit stop at Annabeth's place, we were finally on our way up the mountain of despair.

We had ditched the car a while back since it was too obvious and we hoofed it up the mountain. As the sun was setting, we made our way to a gate.

"The garden of the Hesperides. Home at last." I heard Zoe mutter. What it meant I have no idea, but who cares. I was going to kick some serious ass when we got to the top of the mountain. For Percy.

Percy. He sacrificed himself for people he hardly knew. My 16th birthday is quickly approaching and I want to be able to make the right choice, but I don't know if I can. Percy would though. If only this prophecy was his. But who knows who his parent is, oh, and he died.

We made our way through the gate and were met with four girls all wearing green tunics. They had pitch black hair, flowing out the back. They looked a bit like Zoe.

"Sisters." Zoe greeted them and it all clicked. She was a herperaide, who would have guessed it.

"We see no sister. Just two foolish demigods and two foolish hunters, walking into their doom." the lead one responded.

"Then so be it. I will save Lady Artemis." Zoe responded in a cold voice.

"But all we must do is call Ladon over, and you shall all fall." the lead one said again, in a mocking tone this time.

"Then do it. I fed him from my hand sister, he will remember me and not attack." Zoe told her, we were already inching for the staircase behind them, trying to slip past.

"Then die at Father's hand hunter, he has been waiting eagerly to kill you." The lead one said, her tone full of hate.

"What Fate wills, must happen, so farewell sister, perhaps for the last time." Zoe said and they all moved out of our way. I swear I heard the little one in the back mutter a little good luck.

We made our way up the stairs and saw Artemis holding up the sky. At her feet was what looked like an older girl version of Nico. Bianca. They were both still alive.

"Lady Artemis!" Phoebe called and we all charged to meet them.

Artemis looked up and her face went ashen. "You must flee, it is a trap." she cried, in obvious pain.

"That it is little Olympian. Now welcome all who have made it this Far." a booming voice called from behind us.

Luke was standing alongside a Titan. Atlas to be specific. Atlas had shoulder length slicked back silver hair. His skin was an even tone. Not quite pale or tan. He had a business suit on, like he was going to a meeting, not getting into a fight.

"I see my favorite little traitor has come to be killed." He said, staring coldly at Zoe. When this was all over, she had some serious explaining to do.

"I have come to return something to you father, your burden looks like it wants you back. Why don't you just take it now before I have to force it back on top of you?" Zoe said, her voice full of fire. When it got to fighting, those two were going to make a real mess, I could tell.

"I must be challenged to fight a puny mortal such as you, would you dare?" he asked Zoe, clearly mocking her. As he finished speaking, an arrow caught him right in the gut.

He howled in pain and all Hades broke loose.

Atlas grew silver armor on over his suit, golden ichor still dripping out of his stomach. He charged like a bull at Zoe and Phoebe. They both leapt out of the way and fired their bows at him.

Annabeth and I turned and charged Luke, who had his sword drawn and a crazed look in his eyes. I joined Annabeth. Spear and shield ready. Both fights were family matters.

Luke flinched for a second when he saw my shield and Annabeth took the opportunity to slip her cap on. She vanished and Luke backed up a few steps. Putting his back to a wall of a reforming Mt. Orythys so keep himself from being back stabbed.

I plunged my spear forward, knowing Annie would be trying to flank him and he flicked the attack away with his sword.

He suddenly twisted and ducked as a crack in the limestone appeared where his head was a moment ago. He kicked outwards to the right and Annabeth fell down, her cap falling off her head. I had to cover for her, but Luke threw her hat off a nearby cliff.

I glanced back at the other fight, and things weren't going so well there either. Zoe and Phoebe were hopping around, avoiding any blows themselves, but none of their arrows seemed to bother Atlas at all. He even had an arrow on his helmet that made him look like a unicorn.

They were getting nowhere and neither were we. Annie and I charged Luke, no words were needed. We all knew what the others were going to do. That didn't make it any easier. We stabbed and slashed, but Luke blocked every move perfectly.

Atlas had forced Phoebe to draw her hunting knives while Zoe was still shooting him full of arrows in the chinks in his armor. They were losing and so were we. Luke was slowly pushing us back, onto a cliff that showed a horrible sight.

The princess Andromeda had spilled her hordes onto the beach below us. Thousands of monsters were making their way up a small trail up the cliff. We really needed some godly intervention. Then it clicked.

"Stall him Annie." I called to her as she duked it out with Luke solo now. I ran past where Phoebe and Zoe were fighting Atlas, knives vs. spear.

I ran to Lady Artemis and joined her under the sky.

"Go, help the others!" I yelled at her and I pushed up, freeing her from under the sky.

Damn, that thing is heavy. I would have cried out in pain, but my mouth was frozen shut. My brain function went from normal to don't get crushed. I felt my legs start to wobble, but I held strong. Percy probably felt worse when the robot blew him into millions of pieces. I can do it.

I was vaguely aware of what was happening around me. Artemis had gotten a pair of knives off Phoebe and was tearing Atlas apart. Zoe and Phoebe were both giving her aerial support. I couldn't see Annabeth from here, but I know she is doing great.

Get ready. I heard Artemis's voice in my head, but I couldn't get a response out, I was in too much pain. I saw Artemis on the ground, Atlas standing over her. When he plunged down, Artemis rolled away and used his spear like a pole vault and threw him right into me. I fell away from the sky and let it fall back onto Atlas.

I slowly got up. My head ringing and my muscles felt like they were on fire, but none of it mattered. We did it. Atlas was trapped again. Then I looked at Luke and Annie. No.

Luke had his sword driven right through her chest. A crazed smile on his face. And he started laughing. Until Annabeth punched him in the face.

"I'll miss you Thals" Annabeth called to me, a grim smile on her face. She grabbed Luke and, with the last of her strength, brought him off the cliff with her.

"NNOOO!" I screamed, that wasn't real. That couldn't be real. Annabeth couldn't be dead. "

"No" I said again, quietly this time, tears falling down my face freely. Rivers and oceans of tears that I didn't think would ever stop. I felt myself being picked up and placed in a chariot. It was silver with stags pulling it, or were they reindeers. My brain was completely fried.

I felt another limp body next to mine, Bianca.

"Where's Percy?" she asked weakly, her voice sounded fragile.

I pulled out the hat Percy gave me and told her what happened. How we were trapped by the robot. How he had given me the hat and sacrificed himself. How she would still be on the mountain if it weren't for him.

"One more thing." I told her, getting ready to drop the bomb.

"He loved me, didn't he?" she asked. I gave her a nod. She burst into fresh tears. As she did, so did I. Both of us mourning the most important people to us. Annabeth and Percy were gone.

 **Percy POV**

I watched as they fought. I watched Thalia take the weight of the sky. I watched Atlas get trapped again. I watched Annabeth get stabbed. I watched her pull Luke off the cliff. Her brother killed her. And one shall perish at family's hand.

The prophecy was complete. I felt myself drift into blackness again. The last thing I saw was Bianca and Thalia crying into each other on Artemis's chariot. I guess she got the news. I slipped into blackness once again.

 **Bianca POV**

Artemis was wrong. Percy didn't fail me. He did better than anyone else. He freed me, even if he couldn't be there.

I cried with Thalia all the way to Olympus. I faintly remember Artemis calling a meeting.

"Let the winter solstice meeting begin." Zeus said. I got up from the floor with Thalia and we stood before the gods. I saw 13. 12 on the big thrones in the front, and another tending the fire. Lady Hestia. While the gods were talking about pointless stuff I didn't care about. I walked up next to her.

"Lady Hestia." I bowed to her and she looked at me, shocked.

"That's two in a week." was all she said, which confused me.

"Huh?" I asked and she giggled.

"Almost nobody remembers me. You saw me and spoke with me. The other one who noticed me was Percy. You both have good hearts." she said quietly.

"He did, but he is gone now." I said sadly, I felt hopeless. He was gone and I didn't even get to say goodbye.

"Don't be so sure. Your father will be here shortly. Ask him." was all she said before she vanished and left me wondering. Who was my father? How would he know? I figured out he was a god by this point, but who.

"Now onto our final topic of discussion." Zeus said as I walked back to Thalia and gave her a smile. She gave me a smile back.

"My daughter turns 16 in a few weeks' time. We all know the prophecy. Something must be done." Zeus said and I thought he meant he was going to kill Thalia, but she stepped forward.

"I am going to join the hunters. Without Annabeth, there is no reason for me to be at camp." she said to him and she got a few surprised looks. Zoe being the biggest one.

"Step forward then." Artemis said, her voice both surprised and happy.

"I, Thalia Grace, swear to reject the advances of men and join Lady Artemis in the eternal hunt." she said while kneeling in front of Lady Artemis. She glowed silver for a second, then went back to normal. She looked different though, healthier.

"That makes my son the next eligible for the prophecy." the man I guessed was Poseidon said. "He turns 14 come January." he added with pride.

"I would correct you brother. My daughter turned 14 in September. She is next in line for the prophecy." A dark figure walked in. He had on a business suit. The scary part, it looked like it had souls trapped in it. He had black hair and eyes. Just like Nico and me. Lord Hades, god of the dead, and apparently, my father.

"Then who votes we kill her." Poseidon said eagerly. WHAT!

"Wait, WHAT!" I yelled at them. They looked at me like I was crazy for talking to the all-powerful Olympians.

"What do you mean kill me? What did I do you?" I asked them and my father gave me a proud look.

"There is a prophecy that a child of either Zeus, Poseidon, or Hades, will make a choice to either save or destroy Olympus when they reach 16. We are making sure Olympus isn't destroyed. You are the oldest, so we will vote on your future." Athena explained like she was talking to a toddler.

"Of course I would choose to save Olympus, why would I support the faggots who tricked me into holding up the sky?" I asked them, pretty confused.

"A lot can change between now and then, we cannot take any risks." Athena said, still talking down to me.

"The girl brings up a point, she has no reason to betray us. She is more likely to make the right choice over the sea spawn. Even you can agree to that Athena?" Apollo said. He gave me a grin, but I ignored him.

"You bring up a surprisingly good point brother." Athena said to him and he gave a mock bow.

"I am calling a vote. Who votes she will live." Zeus said.

Hephaestus, Hermes, Athena, Apollo, Demeter, Artemis, Aphrodite and My father all raised their hands. I was safe.

"She will live." Zeus said, somewhat grumpily. "Meeting dismissed."

Most of the gods flashed out at that. Artemis, Athena and my father all remained behind.

"I stick by what I said girl, you could end us all. Only my hate for children of Poseidon kept you alive today." Athena said bitterly to me, then she flashed out.

"I wish you luck in your future, there is always a spot in the hunt if you want?" Artemis offered me, a smug look on her face, like she was sure I would join, but she has another thing coming.

"Pass, maybe after the great prophecy, but I want to do this. No way is it falling to anyone else." I told her and her jaw dropped.

"So be it." she said before she walked out, followed by Thalia, Zoe, and Phoebe. Thalia gave me a thumbs up and mouthed, _good choice_

Last was my father.

"Father." I said to him. I was a little ticked he let me get captured and basically tortured.

"My daughter." he said and hugged me. All my anger faded when he did that.

"You have no idea how much I wanted to storm that god-forsaken mountain with my armies to free you, but the best I could do was help Percy on his way." he said as we hugged. I felt my eyes water. Percy.

I was about to ask, but he stopped me.

"My time with you is limited, but here. This is for you. I already Nico one. He has quite the sword fighting talent if I do say so myself." he said with grin and he handed me a charm necklace. The chain was a dark steel looking material. The charm itself was of a skull. I had ruby eyes and mouth. I put it on and it felt just right.

"I love it." I told him and gave him another hug.

"Good, I must go, but before you ask, what appears to be dead is not always dead. Go to Chiron and ask for the lines of the prophecy, the one that just happened. You might just be surprised." he told me before fading into shadows.

I found myself also dissolve from the empty throne room and appear in front of a large wooden building with an overly large patio. There was a man in a wheel chair who was talking to Nico.

"Hey Nico." I told him.

"BIANCA!" He cheered and gave me a tackle hug.

"Good to see you too buddy." I told him. Suddenly the news of Percy weighed heavily on my heart. I wonder how upset he would be when he found out what happened.

I pulled the Hades figurine from my pocket. I didn't to ask Thalia where it was from. I knew it was Percy's last gift to Nico, but maybe not.

"This is from Percy." I told him and I started to cry. He was thrilled at first, then it set in. Percy wasn't here. He broke down crying too. We hugged and cried for a while. The wheelchair guy was pretty calm about it, I swear I could see some tears in his eyes too.

"Do you know where a Chiron would be?" I asked Nico and he silently pointed to the wheel chair guy.

"Isn't Chiron a centaur?" I asked him and he groaned.

"It's called a disguise." he said as he stood up and revealed his lower half really was the body of a horse.

"My father said to ask you the lines of the prophecy that was just completed." I told him and he nodded and recited.

"Five shall go west to the goddess in chains

One shall be lost in the land without rain

The Pale one shall show the trail

Campers and hunters combined prevail

The Titan's curse one must withstand

And one shall perish at family's hand"

He said and I told him what I know happened. Percy sacrificing himself to the robot. Thalia taking the weight of the sky. And Annabeth being stabbed by Luke. Thalia joining the hunt

When I got to the Annabeth one Chiron began to sob.

"She was like a daughter to me. Curse Kronos and Luke." He spat, tears streaming down his face.

"Don't you see though, my father said to ask for the lines, then said that what appears to be dead is not always dead. Percy was only lost in the dessert. He could still be alive." I exclaimed, happy beyond belief.

Nico's face also brightened, he gave me a watery smile and we hugged again.

"I don't know Bianca, but we shall see." Chiron said and Nico's face fell again.

"If dad told you that, did you get to see him?" Nico asked, a little too quietly for his normal self, but I was too caught up in the moment to notice.

"Yes, he was so nice and caring. He helped Percy along the way. He told me." I told him excitedly. Percy might be alive and meeting my father, not actually a bad day so far after all.

"I didn't get to meet him." Nico said quietly and he wandered off. I didn't really care, I was too excited and caught up in my day.

"Well, I will show you around camp Bianca. You are the new Hades head councilor and from what Mr. D tells me, the next in line for the great prophecy." Chiron told me and I nodded.

"Then let's look around." he said and we headed into camp.

 **~~7 months later~~**

Whoever said camp was fun, lied.

Nico and I have become increasingly distant since I got back from being rescued. He had gone completely Goth He wore only dark clothes and jackets. I even caught him suing some of my eyeliner once. I quickly put a stop to that.

The campers all treated me a little coldly because in their logic, I had gotten Annabeth killed and Thalia to leave. Some of the campers were a little nicer. A son of Hephaestus named Beckendorf, a daughter of Aphrodite, Selina, and two sons of Apollo, Will Solace and Lee Fletcher.

Most of the others ignored me, but Darren, who I had taken the title of prophecy child from, went out of his way to make my life as miserable as possible. Every time I saw him, he would make rude comments and call me weak for getting captured.

I used the necklace that turned into a morning star my dad had given me as my weapon in training, I was going to find Percy if Chiron ever allowed me to go out of camp. No one believes me that he is still alive, but I will go alone if I have too. What I wouldn't give to have him here, he would stand by my side, and I know it.

 **Percy POV**

I have been training in my powers and healing for the past seven months. The elf boy, who was named Leo, helped a bunch. I could tell he was a son of Hephaestus from all the tinkering he did. He also had an ability I had never seen before, granted I was a pretty new demi-god, but I don't remember seeing a fire wielding demigod in the Hephaestus cabin when I was in there with Beck.

He taught me to use the heat. I couldn't ever generate a fire, but I could manipulate and move it once it was already there. I also couldn't burn. I also could manipulate sunlight. I had gotten to the point where I could melt a steel wall with only sunlight in a matter of seconds, but promptly faint after.

I had a dream last night. My father came to my dreams and said I had completed this portion of my training. He showed me an entrance to a cave system and told me it was the labyrinth. And that soon campers would need to go inside. I took my hook swords that Leo repaired and added a silver touch to them and made them lighter and stronger. He was even better than Beck at forging stuff.

I invited him to come with me, but he said no. I headed into the maze. I'm coming home Bianca, just try and stop me.

 **One book done, seven more to go. Next chapter will be the lead into BOTL. Any suggestions are welcome. I am having Percy ease into his powers. A shout out to Djberneman for power recommendations.**

 **I was at the Parthenon today and it was epic.**

 **Happy reading-Centurion Africanus**


	6. Chapter 6-the labrynth

**I don't own PJO or HOO**

 **Author's note at the bottom, please read for my excuses for not posting for so long.**

 **Bianca POV**

I woke up in cold sweat. I had been having nightmares for the past month, I feel like something is coming, but I'm not sure what. Chiron hired a new sword instructor, Quintus. I know he feels something is coming too.

Quintus is a middle aged guy with a dove tattoo on his neck. He has tons of experience and is one hell of a teacher. Nico thinks there is something funny about him, and I agree a little, but his teaching outweighs the oddness.

I train hard every day, most other campers do to, just away from me. Nico stays in the shadows and everyone leaves him alone, I'm not sure he's in camp half the time, except for when I catch him sneaking around in shadows and flopping into bed hours after lights out.

I miss Percy, his bedroom door stares me in the face every time I walk into the cabin. I think Nico goes in there from time to time, but I haven't worked up the courage to go in yet.

I know what both the prophecy and my dad said, but why wouldn't Percy have come back by now. It's almost August 18th, it would be his 15th birthday then. My 15th birthday is a little later in September. I remember celebrating my 14th birthday with him at Westover, he stole all the donuts that were in the teachers' lounge and Nico, Percy and I all had a muted party of sorts. Percy and I were planning to do something for Nico on his birthday, but that never happened.

He should be back by now. He has had plenty of time to heal or whatever he needed to. Maybe he never wanted to come back. I could see why, most of these people were awful. But if he knew Nico and I were here, couldn't he have at least snuck us out.

I don't know about Percy anymore, Thalia's monthly Iris messages that usually have Artemis come in at the end and invite me to the hunt are starting to sound pretty tempting. But I know I won't, at least not until I finish whatever big prophecy is set for me. I won't leave it for Darren. He would screw it up, I know he would. I have to finish this.

I got dressed in my usual get up, some athletic shorts and a camp shirt I dyed a blue black color. I put on my necklace and some nice tennis shoes Selina gave me when my first pair wore out. She was my friend, one of the few who didn't blame me for what happened to Annabeth.

That was a whole different problem. While some people only didn't like me of who my father is, which is stupid in my opinion. Others, like the entire Athena cabin, shoot dark glares at me whenever I pass. A bunch of others too. Annabeth must have been important for this many people to hate me for being rescued on the quest she died on. Only Percy really went for me, the rest were trying to save Artemis. Yet I got blamed, not Artemis, but me. The campers are imbeciles, but there are enough good ones to stick around. That and the other option is being eaten by monsters or joining the freaks who tricked me under the sky. I think I'm good here.

The day goes by pretty normally, mean glares, and Darren tries to bait me into fighting him. He is actually a good fighter when he isn't showing off. Which is hardly ever.

When it's time for capture the flag, Quintus makes an announcement.

"Listen up campers. We're changing it up a bit today. I have sent a large batch of fresh monsters loose in the forest. They are uncommon to the forest, so they will be easy to recognize. I have made pairs of campers to go hunt as a team. Each monster has a package. Only one package has a golden laurel. When that one is found, the other packages are set to kill the monsters. Now here are the pairs. Any complaints can be filed during a month worth of dish duty." he said in his usual strict tone. I silently prayed to any god I could think of that I wasn't paired with Darren or one of his cronies.

"Clarisse LaRue and Connor Stoll

"Travis Stoll and Katie Gardener"

"Charles Beckendorf and Selina Beauregard"

"Lee Fletcher and Bianca DiAngelo"

"Will Solace and Jake Mason"

"Nico DiAngelo and Darren Marx"

The names went on and on, but my mind stuck on the last one. Nico was stuck with Darren, now I take back my prayer. I wish I could be stuck with Darren instead of my poor little brother. Oh, this was going to end poorly.

I was going to speak up, but Quintus was giving me a glare, like he knew what I was going to ask. I decided to just go with it.

I tried to find Nico in the crowd of campers who were trying to find their partners, but he was off in the shadows again. Darren looked like Christmas had come early for him. I just took a deep breath and found Lee.

"Glad I'm with you and not one of Darren's butt trolls." he joked, casually throwing his arm over my shoulder. Both he and Will were hopeless flirts, but I had made it perfectly clear I wasn't interested.

I shrugged his arm off me and tried to find Nico again.

"While that may be true, Nico is stuck with the butt troll king." I said and Lee grimaced a bit.

"Your brother can be one hell of a creepy dude, Selina told me he had been trying to borrow her makeup a few times. Not to mention the insane amount of hours Clarisse says he's been training. He was a natural before, but now she says he looks like an expert."

At this I frowned. I hadn't seen Nico train once. I only ever see him at occasional meals, or as he sneaks through shadows when he thinks no one can see him. Or the even rarer occasion of him seeking me out.

"Go!" Quintus called and all thoughts of Nico vanished. Lee and I dashed into the woods, hunting whatever monster Quintus set for us to find. 

**Nico POV**

I hate my family.

I don't remember my mom. I can't remember anything before Westover hall. I know Bianca can't either. We tried to piece together our past while we were still close.

Bianca has changed. She used to be so kind and offer to help me even when I didn't want it. It was overly motherly, but I liked it. She's different now. She's distant. She's upset about Percy, just like me, but she never tries to talk to me about it. She just goes off with her new friends and leaves me behind, like she can't be bothered with me.

Speaking of people who can't be bothered with me, which brings us to the topic of my father. I thought he was cool once upon a time. Bianca actually got to meet him. He gave her his gift in person. She said he was amazing, he still hasn't tried to contact me though. Ever. Bianca said he told her he tried to help Percy. If that was true, Percy wouldn't be missing.

Yeah, missing. Bianca kept saying he wasn't dead, I didn't believe her. I decided to work on my powers. Every night, I sneak out into the forest to practice. Whenever Bianca tries her powers, they always have something to do with shadows. Mine are different. I can work with the dead.

I've been summoning ghosts and skeletons for weeks. The skeletons do whatever I say, the ghosts just give me advice and information. About a month ago, I managed to summon a pretty famous ghost. Midas.

He told me that he has never seen the soul of an albino demigod. Percy was out there, and for whatever reason, he ditched me. He broke the promise he made to me when I first came to camp, that he would always be there for me.

I actually bothered to show up for whatever activity Quintus planned for us. There was something really wrong about that guy, like he is standing in death's shadow, holding onto life by a thread.

When Quintus announced the teams, I just left, no way in Hades I was going to be stuck with that dick face. He represents everything wrong with the gods. They are arrogant low life fools. They go and fuck stuff up, literally, then walk away and leave defenseless mortals to deal with the consequences.

They start wars over petty feuds and leave their children that have already ruined the lives of innocent mortals to fight and die in them. There has to be a way to end this pointless cycle of death the gods are using to make the world go round.

I hate the gods and want them gone, if only there were people with the same opinion as me out there.

 **Bianca POV**

Lee and I found the new monster quick enough, they were giant scorpions. They reminded me an awful lot of Dr. Thorn. Mercy was not given to the bugs to say the least.

I beat my way through them with my morning star, smashing all the ones we had found so far. Lee stayed back and shot down any that got past me, so maybe one.

We killed about 10 in total. Lee and I dug through the packages as they dissolved into dust, no golden laurel though. We kept looking.

We spent about a half hour going through the woods, killing any scorpions we found, still no laurel.

We finally made our way to Zeus's fist and saw the biggest scorpion of the bunch. It was the size of a cabin. Will and Jake were already fighting it, but they were in trouble. Lee and I jumped in to help.

Lee joined Will in shooting the scorpion with arrows, but only a few arrows were finding the chinks in its armor. Jake was beating at the legs with a hammer while dodging both the tail and front pincers. He was just lucky Will had blinded the thing, or he would have probably been impaled already.

I leapt into action and swung my morning star right into one of the back legs. It shrieked in pain and tried to stab me with its tail. I rolled left out of the way. While it was distracted, Jake used his hammer and crushed one of the front pincers. The scorpion went nuts.

It started bucking around, trying to stab Jake with its tail, forcing him to scramble back to safety. I watched its movements closely for a second when I got an idea.

"Distract it for a second." I called to Jake and he nodded. He went for the other pincer with his hammer.

I went around to the back of the scorpion and waited by the tail. When Jake attacked, the scorpion did exactly what I thought it would. It freaked and tried to stab Jake with its tail. But when it pulled its tail back to hit him, I swung my morning star full into its tail. That really got it pissed.

It finished its motion of trying to stab Jake, but my morning star was still caught it the thick armor that was covering most of its body. It dragged me along with it and sent me flying into Will, who had tried to move closer for a better shot. We both crashed into Zeus's fist and fell down a small crevice that I hadn't noticed there before. We both plummeted into darkness.

We untangled ourselves from each other and looked around. We were in a tunnel of some sort. Will was squinting, trying to look at everything.

"Where are we, I can't see anything?" he asked and I looked at him funny.

"I can see perfectly fine." I told his and he rolled his eyes.

"Child of Hades, you probably have night vision of some sort." he said and I shrugged, another cool power to thank dad for.

"That makes sense." I responded and looked around again. We were in some sort of tunnel. It continued in both directions. Farther down, I could see one of the tunnels turn.

"You have any idea where we are?" Will asked and I shook my head before realizing he couldn't see me.

"None." I told him as I took a closer look at the walls. There was a rusty ladder leading back up the hole we found. Along the wall across from that was a mural. It was chipped and faded in places, but I could make out the jist of it and my breath caught as I realized what it was a painting of.

"There's a mural on the far wall. It looks like it's the story of Theseus." I told him and he put on a pensive look.

"You sure?" he asked and I was quick to respond.

"Well what other story has a guy going into a maze with yarn and killing a half-bull half-man?" I asked him and he shrugged.

"Not important, can you see a way out anywhere?" he asked and I led him to the ladder, deep in thought.

"Here, there's a ladder." I told him and he gave me a funny look.

"You could have said so earlier." he said and I shrugged.

"Whatever, let's go back to helping Jake and Lee with the scorpion." I said and he gave me a strong nod before he climbed up the ladder. I took one last look around and I swear I felt some other presence, just waiting in the shadows, but it wasn't a cold feeling.

It was warm and reassuring. Like a warm and friendly bonfire. It made my chest warm up a little. It felt like Percy. I wore my hat everywhere, just to have a part of him with me. Maybe these tunnels is where he was. I would have to ask Chiron if I could explore them more.

I climbed my way out and was met with the sight off an almost full moon. Weird, wasn't it dusk when we fell into the tunnel. Next thing I noticed was the group of campers with torches that Will was talking too quickly. Chiron's face was getting graver by the minute.

"Bianca, tell them, we were only down there for a minute, not several hours." he said franticly and I gulped.

"We've been gone for hours?" I basically shouted at them.

"I want all cabin leaders to report to the big house at once." Chiron said, not answering my question.

"Why, what happened?" I questioned as me and the other cabin leaders followed Chiron back to the big house. I noticed Clarisse had the golden laurels on her head, as did Connor, guess they won.

"I shall explain once we are inside." he said solemnly.

"It was the entrance we were looking for, wasn't it?" Clarisse asked him and he gave a nod.

"Yes, now hold off all questions until we get inside. I don't want to start a panic." Chiron said and hurried us all into the big house where we gathered around the Ping-Pong table. We really need something more official, but no one really seems to care.

"Ok, what happened to me down there Chiron?" I asked, beginning to freak out a little.

"That was an entrance to the labyrinth. It is an ancient maze that was originally built by Daedalus." Chiron said with a grim tone.

"Wouldn't it still be in Ancient Greece then?" Beck asked

"It probably moved with western civilization, like the gods did." Malcolm, the new leader of the Athena cabin, said with a superior tone in his voice. He glared at me while he spoke. Out of all the Athena campers, he seems to hate me the most.

"Correct Malcolm, since the war began, I have been sending out individual campers across the countries to check on a few things. In March, Clarisse found an entrance to the labyrinth. She also found one of the campers who ran away to join Kronos, Chris Rodriguez. His mind is still completely broken. Mr. D has been working with him, but the most we can get out of him is one word, string."

"You mean like Ariadne's string?" Malcolm was quick to show off his smarts and give his ego another inflation it really didn't really need.

"Yes Malcolm. Now that we have found an entrance inside the camp, I believe that the Titans are planning to get the string from Daedalus, find their way to camp, and kill all of us, crippling the gods severely." Chiron said and most campers present took sharp breathes.

"Won't the barrier protect us, I made it better after all?" Darren bragged, leaning heavily on the table. "Also, how could Daedalus still be alive, wasn't he alive, like thousands of years ago?" he asked, actually bringing up a good point for once.

"The maze is tied to his life force, since the maze is still around, then Daedalus must be still alive as well." Chiron explained to him.

"We need a quest." he continued, "Bianca, seeing as you are both the active prophecy child and you found the Labyrinth, I believe it is you who is supposed to lead this quest. Go consult the oracle and then we can discuss this further." he said and gestured me to a trapdoor in the roof on the top floor.

I made my way up and pulled down on the trap door. It led to an attic. The attic was dark and a little moldy. It was packed with any and all sorts of war prizes. From severed monster parts, to a pink feather boa. Some of it was labeled, some not.

At the far side of the room was what could only be described as a zombie. It had a full hippie getup from the flower dress to the leather headband. She was propped against the wall on a stool.

I had no idea what I was up here for until the zombie started spewing green smoke.

"I am the Oracle of Delphi, disciple of Phoebus Apollo. Approach seeker, and ask." It said through the smoke. Deep in the smoke, I swear I could see a teenage girl in the same get-up.

"How do I save camp?" I asked, my confidence quickly waning.

 _Four shall delve into the endless maze_

 _Separate from start until time of raze_

 _One shall feel the wrath of the ghost king's hand_

 _A child of Athena's final stand_

 _Destroy with a heroes final breathe_

 _An exchange to retrieve what's been lost in the west_

After that the smoke cleared and I was shell-shocked.

An exchange to retrieve what's been lost in the west. Percy. This would be my chance to find Percy. I knew I felt something down in the maze, it was Percy, it had to be. But did I really want to spread that word to camp, it was pretty personal.

I went back down to the rest of them, who were waiting patiently, except Darren that is. He was loudly complaining he should be the one leading the quest. I thank the gods I wasn't specified to bring a child of Poseidon that would have been awful.

"Well, what is our fortune?"

I recited the prophecy to them and Chiron looked at me expectantly, he knew there was more.

"That seems a little bit incomplete, was there another line we should know of?" he asked calmly and I almost buckled. But this was personal to me and me only.

"Nope, that was all." I said in a fake confident voice. Chiron saw right through me, I know he did, but the others seemed to buy it.

"Ok then, let's see what we can figure out from the lines then." he said and I nodded.

"The first two lines, they mean that there will be four people and some or one of them will have to enter at a different point of the labyrinth." Malcolm said smartly.

"Yeah, and they won't see each other until something is raised from the dead." Travis said and I shook my head.

"I think it means R-A-Z-E raze. Like destroying something." I said and faces fell. Camp's survival was not looking very good.

"Maybe we aren't supposed to know the last person. We usually send three campers, barring special circumstances, why don't we send three in, and wait for the fourth to appear, maybe a deserter from Kronos's army?" Clarisse suggested. That sounded pretty risky to me, but everyone else seemed to agree, so I went with it.

"So we have Bianca as the leader and she chooses two companions, sound good so far?" Katie asked and every one nodded. "Now who?" she continued.

"Obviously me, I am the most powerful demi-god in existence!" Darren exclaimed and jumped to his feet, puffing out his chest. He may have his followers, but everyone here was smart enough to not buy his crap act.

"No." I quickly put a stop to his self-promotion campaign and he deflated instantly.

"How about a child of Athena, seeing as she is the only god mentioned by the oracle?" Lee asked, but Malcolm shut him down.

"I am not sending any of my siblings to go die at the hands of the death spawn. A child of Athena's final stand remember. Let's just assume the fourth is a child of Athena." He said bitterly and both he and I received a few glares.

"Fine then, so I just pick any one then?" I asked Chiron and he nodded. Now I had a lot to think about. Clarisse was a fantastic fighter, but she would be needed for the defenses if necessary.

"Any volunteers, not counting Darren?" I asked and not many people looked interested.

"I got your back Bi." Selina said and she stood up.

"Me too." Beck said and stood up as well.

"Well there we go, I got a team." I said confidently, giving my friends a grateful look. Lee was looking guilty he hadn't volunteered sooner.

"Very well then, you will set out in the morning." Chiron said, despite Darren complaining nonstop about he was superior to everyone else, he really needs to shut his face.

I went over packing plans with Selina and Beck before we all headed back to our respective cabins for a good night's rest before our quest tomorrow. The rest of camp would be preparing a defense around Zeus's fist in case we failed.

When I got back to my cabin, I found Nico, wearing his whole new goth/emo getup he had taken to wearing. Where he got it all was still beyond me.

"So, what's the scoop on our quest?" he asked and I paled. Shit, I had forgotten to ask if Nico wanted to come with me. But he was only 12 that would be my excuse.

"You're only 12, too young for a quest yet, sorry." I said and he got real pissed, real fast.

"I've already been forced to sit back and watch Percy go out and try to save, only to be gone himself and completely different. Not happening again. I'm coming Bi, no choice." he said through clenched teeth. Who did he think he was, ordering me, his older sister, around?

"I have already turned down one egotistical jerk, so I hope you aren't turning into Darren and trying to force your way into the quest." I shot back and he grimaced, maybe a little too much, but he earned it.

"So, what are you going to exchange?" he asked and my breathe caught in my throat.

"What does that mean?" I asked him quietly, he must have heard my prophecy, probably lurking in the shadows of the creepy attic.

"You know, the exchange to get Percy back, from the line you kept from everyone else, what are you willing to exchange to get him back?"

"You are making stuff up now Nico, I didn't keep any part of the prophecy from the others." I said, trying to use denial, but he saw right through me.

"If you don't want to tell me, that fine, but remember this. Percy said he would give his life for you and he might have actually done that. He focused on you more than on Artemis like the rest of the questers. And he isn't here now. So focus on the quest, not Percy, even though you've been a horrible sister lately, you're the only family I have left." he said with a hard look that no 12 should have in their eyes. Was I really such a horrible sister to him?

"You've got dad, and I WILL find Percy again and we'll have him too." I said and his face darkened, he looked more angry than I had ever seen him.

"Well, Percy isn't here, he's somewhere out there doing gods knows what and forgetting about us. And, despite you saying I have him, I have never gotten so much as a hello dream from dad. You've gotten to meet him in person and he sends you dream messages all the time, you've rubbed it in all the time. As far as I'm concerned, I have no father." He blew up at me and I finally saw why he was doing everything he had been doing.

The piles of bones around camp must have been training with his powers over the dead. Clarisse must have really seen him super training with his sword work at nights. He was crying for attention. Begging for it from either me or dad. I had been so caught in camp and trying to convince Chiron to let me go find Percy, I had completely missed it.

"When I get back, we can talk, OK?" I asked him in a calm tone, falling back into the motherly role from before camp.

"Little late for that Bianca." he said quietly, "I'm going to bed." he added and walked slowly into his room and he shut the door quietly.

Well that was a strange reaction, shock maybe, doesn't matter. Nico was right, I have a quest to focus on. I went to my room and went into a fitful sleep.

 **Percy POV**

I quickly got lost in the maze. I mean like really lost. I was holding a fireball to see, but that didn't change the fact that the labyrinth really lived up to the name, endless maze.

I was beginning to doubt coming in here. Was I doing the right thing? I have only really been doing what my father told me too blindly, well, because he is the first person besides my mom to proudly call me theirs.

That's why I didn't leave the junkyard as soon as I could walk again. I stayed to train with Leo, who refused to share his past, but I didn't really mind. He was a good kid. Really weird and with a crazier sense of humor than Travis and Connor, but he had a good heart.

I kept wandering the maze, looking for any other sign of life, but I could find none. Suddenly, I heard a noise down a tunnel and to the left. I put out my flame and felt my way to the sound, thankful for the armor Leo made me for the occasion. It was light and thin metal, not very strong, but it was pitch black and helped me disguise in the darkness of the labyrinth.

When I got closer to the sound, I noticed there were two voices, a boy and a girl. They seemed to be arguing over something, but I couldn't tell what. When I finally turned the corner, they were gone, swallowed in the darkness of the maze. The voices were familiar though, especially the girl. Now I just have to place it.

I kept wandering until I found the skeleton of a two headed milkman. Damn, that's creepy. It was sitting next to a ladder so I climbed up and back into the outside world.

I popped up in the basement of some building. It was familiar though. Then I recognized the equipment in the room. I was in the planetarium I had worked in before Westover. What are the odds? I marked the entrance of the labyrinth with a few planetary models of the sun and I walked back into the real world for the first time since December.

I thought my armor would stand out like a sore thumb at first as I made my way out of the planetarium, but nobody seemed to notice my armor, or the twin swords strapped to my back.

I was back in New York and I had several options. I could just go back into the labyrinth, but I wanted to do something first. I stopped in a store and bought some new jeans and a sweatshirt and threw that over my armor. It was a little warm, but I didn't really care. I had my helmet in my bag and my hood up as I made my way to the hospital.

I half expected my mom to have died as soon as I left for Westover, but after a quick conversation with the clerk, some mysterious donor had paid for her whole bill and then some. I made my way through the coma ward until I found her room.

I made my way inside and I almost cried as soon as I saw her. It was clear Gabe had never bothered to visit her seeing as there were no beer cans or cigarette butts laying around. In fact, her room was completely bare of all decoration. Just a simple chair in addition to all the machines she was plugged into.

My mom looked worse than she did before, much worse, but according to the doctor's charts, she was perfectly fine, it was like she had just lost the will to live. I checked which doctor was tending to her, to make sure it was actually a doctor and I almost fainted when I saw who it was.

Dr. Fred Sunset

My face cracked into a small grin as I put her medical charts back. Apollo must have been the one who paid for her bill and now he was keeping her alive. Unless there was an actual Dr. Fred Sunset, which I highly doubted.

I stayed with my mother for a while, holding her frail hand in mine. Next to her, it was apparent how much I had grown. But I was still weak. I had let this happen to her. This was my fault.

"Who the hell are you?" a nasally voice brought my out of my pondering

It was a girl. She was wearing torn and paint splattered jeans and an equally messy t-shirt. She had a mess of red hair that looked like an electrified mop.

"Really, who the hell are you? Sally has never had a visitor besides me, so who are you?" she asked again and I stood up to face her.

"I'm her son." I answered, deciding to go with the truth.

"She has a kid? How come I've never seen you before, and are those swords strapped to your back?" she fired off her questions quickly, a little like Nico would.

"Wait, you can see my swords?" I asked, fingering the hilts of one, ready to draw it if she turned to be a monster.

"Of course I can, you weren't exactly hiding them." she said, giving me a critical eye.

"Are you another one of those weirdoes that I sometimes see around the city?" she asked and I gave her a confused look.

She groaned and went on to explain that she had been seeing strange things all over the place. One eyed men, snake ladies, and people carrying tons of weapons just walking around with no one stopping them.

"Can I try something?" I asked her gently, pulling out one of my swords.

"Not with that you psyco!" she cried, but I swung the flat side at her anyway. It passed right through her.

"What the hell was that, your sword went right through me!" she cried and I could tell she was completely confused, so I decided to tell her the truth, she seemed like a good person, and she was defiantly mortal.

"Introductions first, I'm Percy Jackson." I said and I looked her in the eyes for the first time and I held out my hand.

"Rachel Elizabeth Dare." she said, staring at my hand, realizing I was albino for the first time.

"Yeah, I know, I'm a freak." I said quietly and I pulled my hand back.

"No, no, I think it's cool, you're a completely blank slate. That would make body paint so much easier, you should try in some time." she said, tearing to tear her gaze away from my skin, but leaving my totally confused.

"Body painting?" I asked and she shrugged

"Later, I believe you have some explaining to do." she said, so I told her about the gods. About monsters. About demigods. I didn't tell her my story, but she deserved to know she wasn't crazy and see things.

"Well that's a relief." she said from her seat in the chair, which she had thrown me out of soon after my explanation.

"It is a good feeling to know you're not crazy." I agreed and she laughed a little.

"So can I see everything if I know both my parents?" she asked

"You are probably a mortal who can see through the mist, which is a magical barrier to separate magic from normal people." I explained and she nodded.

"Can you be sure?" she asked and I held up my sword again.

"I already did. If you had any godly blood, my sword would have hit you." I said and she nodded again.

"So who is your godly parent?" she asked and I shrugged.

"I have seen him in dreams, but he has yet to tell me who he is. I have no idea." I answered and she scowled.

"So he just left you as a baby and now he won't tell you who he is so he doesn't have to be responsible for you, sounds like a right dick face to me." she said and I frowned.

"I'm sure he has a good reason." I answered, subconsciously putting up my defenses about my dad.

"No parent has an excuse to not take responsibility for their kids." she said with steel in her voice, probably a story there, but I wasn't going to question her.

"Agree to disagree." I said, trying to change the subject.

"Not an option, people whose parents forget them and ignore them are the worst and they have no excuse. Tell your dad-and I don't care if he's a god-to go pull his head out of his ass and stand by you, like a real parent." she spat. I get the feeling that I wasn't the first person to hear these lines.

"I'll try." I said and held up my hand to stop her from complaining further. The seed of doubt had been sown though. Did my dad not really care about me? Did he just want to use me and forget about me? That couldn't be it. I couldn't really be a bastard.

"One question for you this time." I asked her, "Why were you visiting my mom, it's not like you know her?" I asked and she shrugged.

"I read online that talking to comatose patients can wake up easier if some talks to them frequently. A few months ago, I actually got one to wake up and shout at me to shut up and leave him alone. He had been in a coma for a year before that. Your mom had no one to talk with her, so I did." she explained and I could only laugh.

"You, Rachel Elizabeth Dare, are the weirdest person I have ever met." I laughed and she took a mock bow.

"Coming from someone who if half god, that is high praise indeed." she joked and me both cracked up.

I glanced out the window and saw the sun setting. "I gotta go, nice meeting you." I said and she grabbed my arm and pulled out a marker.

"Here's my number, in case you wind up stranded and need a hand." she said and I gave her a smile.

"Thanks." I answered and she smiled back.

"Now go do whatever half gods do." she shooed me away and I made my way out of the hospital and back to the planetarium.

I went back down into the labyrinth and landed right on the last person I would ever have expected to meet down there.

 **Hey, I'm not dead. Yup, still alive and typing. Now for my laundry list of excuses.**

 **The week after I got back from Greece, I had weeklong sleepaway camp for football conditioning, no tech**

 **Football season has started and that takes all my energy**

 **I went out and bought all the fable games for my 360, which takes up most of my free time.**

 **My girlfriend broke her leg and I am trying to be with her as much as I can**

 **Those are main excuses, yeah. I have a busy schedule. I am really sorry for being so late in posting, but the school year has basically started for me. No idea when more will be coming, but hopefully soon.**

 **Thanks for understanding, happy reading-Centurion Africanus**


	7. Chapter 7-hobbitish riddles

**I don't own PJO or HOO**

 **Nico POV**

That night, I ran away.

Bianca wasn't acting like the sister I had always known her to be, my father didn't even acknowledge I existed and Percy was leaving us all behind. It all hurt so much. They all betrayed me.

I had a dream before I ran away though. A voice in a deep black pit gave me an idea. The only thing that stopped me from joining the voice was I knew the pit was Tartarus. We both agreed on one thing though, camp was no place for me, so I left, vanished into the shadows of the labyrinth. Percy could be down here somewhere for all I know.

I walking along casually, when I stumbled on a two-headed skeleton. I used my powers a bit and brought it to life. My new skeleton body guard bowed and stood readily at my side, that is, until an armored figure fell out of the ceiling and landed right on my skeleton, breaking him into thousands of little pieces.

The armored guy kicked turned to me and froze. I couldn't see his face, but his armor was black as night. It looked like it was more for camouflage than protection. His helmet was a standard knight's helmet, showing none of his face. I pulled my sword out and stared him down.

"Who the hell are you, I told him I wasn't going to join him yet, I need time to think."

"What the hell are you talking about Nico?" a muffled voice asked from behind the mask. I may not have learned much at camp, but when random people know your name, they are probably monsters.

"Shut up monster!" I shouted at him and charged with my sword.

The dude dodged easily and I kept swinging, but I never could place a hit. Whenever I threw shadows at the guy, they wouldn't stay close to him, it was like they were running away. I figured it was just my weak powers, Bianca always had a better skill using shadows, and I usually stuck with the dead.

"What the hell Nico! What did I do?" the guy asked and I almost froze, his tone was a little familiar. I just couldn't place it.

"I don't know you freak!" I shouted back and gave him a solid kick in the gut. I advanced carefully with my sword, ready to gut the bastard, but he was gone. Swallowed by the maze.

I sheathed my sword and went on my way, playing with one of the more intact bones from the skeleton. Bianca said she wanted to protect me by not letting me on this quest, well who cares, she just forgot about me, I know, I watched the whole thing. Well I was a part of this quest, whether she wanted me to be or not.

I walked through the shadows, ready to ambush the next useless monster in my path.

 **Percy POV**

What the Hades happened to Nico. I leave for a quest to get his sister back, which he wanted more than anything, so what if I was a little late, I wasn't family to him like Bianca was. And he had Hades now too, what god was I, but attacking me unprovoked like that was uncalled for.

I go to face-palm, but my hand hits my helmet, of course. He must not have recognized me. I turn to talk to him, but all I can see is a wall. Damn maze must have shifted to keep us apart. Oh well, if he's here then Bianca must be around here somewhere too. Then I realized, she was the voice I had heard the previous night.

I had been so close to getting back, so close to getting back to Bianca, if I was just faster, I could have gotten back to her, or at least, I could have seen her again.

But something Nico said was bothering me. Who was he considering joining? Who had he spoken too? Some Olympian task force similar to the Hunters of Artemis, his father in the underworld. It sure as Hades better not be Kronos. I kept puzzling it out until I could see light ahead.

I made my way into a fairly well lit room. It looked a little like a classroom with all the desks removed and torches on the walls. In the corner of the room was a large machine that looked a little like a printer. There were three exits on the far wall.

I made my way to the doors, but when I got to the middle of the room, spotlights flicked on and all blasted down on me. I had to shield my eyes even with my helmet to keep from being blinded.

"Welcome one and all to another round of riddles, riddles, and more riddles. Today's contestant, this random potentially tasty demi-god!"

A large voice called down from a descending platform.

On sed platform was a sphinx, whether it was the sphinx that Odysseus killed or not, I have no idea, but if it is, I am probably screwed. Smarts aren't exactly my strong suit. Annabeth would have made easy work of the sphinx, but it was my fault she's dead. I was too weak, I didn't even make it to mount Orthrys.

"Well let's explain to our newest meal-I mean competitor-the rules of our little game." The sphinx broke my train of thought. "There will be a 25 question scantron portion to be graded by the machine behind me, then will be a riddle for each person in your group, and if the competitor chooses, one last riddle for the chance to ask one question of me, a highly intelligent sphinx."

"Can I just pass quietly and skip the pop quiz?" I asked hopefully, praying to any god I could think of.

"Well if it were just one person, then maybe, but you are here representing four people, a whole quest, I could let you pass, but the others would have to make up for your questions, so your call really." The sphinx said and I froze. I was on a quest, a quest I knew nothing about, a quest where I was most likely to get another person killed. I wasn't going to let that happen again. Gabe hurt my mom, blonde-what's-his-face killed Annabeth, the Manticore took Bianca and made her hold the sky.

All because I was too weak. Never again.

"I'll take all the riddles if you swear that no matter what happens here, the others go past unharmed." I laid my conditions out for the sphinx and it nodded.

"I swear on the Styx." It replied and a desk appeared in the middle of the room, it had a scantron, number two pencil, and an upside-down test sheet. This was probably a scene out of every demi-god's nightmares, being forced to take a test, no wonder sphinxes were so hated.

"You have a half hour, begin." The sphinx called and a large electronic clock on the far wall started ticking down. I got to work.

The questions started out pretty, some were just plain insulting to any bodies intelligence, _like seriously, 1+1? Does she want to eat me or not?_

Then they got harder and harder. The last question I could tell was supposed to stump a lot of people, but I knew it already. I guess working in a planetarium does help.

 _What is the only planet to float if placed in a giant bath tub?_

 _Saturn, easy._

"Done." I called to the sphinx and she looked a little shocked, but a breeze took my paper and whisked it away to the machine. The machine buzzed for a few minutes, both the sphinx and I looking at it carefully. It dinged and a breeze sent it back to the sphinx.

"100 percent. Congratulations, you must have studied. Now for your four riddles."

"Ok then." I answered and she led me to a raised platform, kinda like the ones from Gabe's stupid gameshows.

"The rules are simple, I will display a photo of each quest member including yourself, and you will choose one person at a time and answer a riddle for that person. The riddles get harder with time, so choose wisely." She instructed and waved her paw. Four large monitors appeared in place of the clock from before, displaying four pictures.

The obvious one of me in my armor, but three others I knew well. Selina, Beck, and Bianca.

"I'll answer for her first." I answered, pointing at Bianca. If nothing else, I was going to make sure she was safe.

"12 white horses, standing on a cherry hill, first the champ, then they stamp, then they stand still." The sphinx read the first riddle off a large book titled, Riddles for dummies.

"Teeth." I answered and she nodded. A loud ding sounded and a check mark appeared over Bianca's picture.

"And next?" the sphinx was turning to a new page, hopefully another one from the Hobbit, I wasn't exactly known for my intelligence, my school records were enough proof of the that.

"Her." Pointing at Selina.

The sphinx gave me a sideways glance, but read from her book again. "I can be stopped by two, all mortals fear me, I devour the greatest beasts, fell the mightiest forces, crumble the tallest mountains, what am I."

That one stumped me a little. It sounded similar to the time riddle from the Hobbit, but it had mythology twists that might change the answer. Most of the last bit fit, but the first part left me guessing. Two control me. Kronos obviously, but who else.

I figured I had two riddles left and since it was my best guess, to just go with my gut.

"Time." I answered in a weak voice, hoping I was right.

Another ding sounded and I looked up to see a second check appear over Selina's photo. Halfway there.

I'll answer for him next, gesturing to Beck and the sphinx flat out smiled.

"You are brave, willing to sacrifice yourself for your friends. That is admirable, you will probably taste most sweet." She said, licking her lips.

"Sounds intriguing, can you just give me the next riddle." I asked, not really wanting to hear the specifics of how she would cook and eat me.

"I hunger for all. Devouring food, land, and man. My presence will burn out the world, but water can pain me." She stared me down again, and I laughed internally, Leo had told me this one once.

"Fire." I said and she grimaced as a third ding sounded and Beck's face was checked. All my friends were safe, now to wonder what the impossible riddle I had to answer could be.

The sphinx didn't wait for me to speak, just went right into the riddle.

"If you have me, you want to share me. If you don't, you want me. But once I am shared, I am gone." She said in a dramatic tone. This one had me. Once again, I managed to get myself into another impossible situation to save my friends. At least my friends were safe, so it couldn't be the worst way to go, all because I couldn't solve the secret of the sphinx.

Wait, that's it.

"A secret." I gave my answer to her, confident in my instincts.

A final ding sounded and I gave a whoop of joy. The sphinx looked pissed beyond belief, but stepped back onto her platform.

"You may pass, unless you want to trey my all or nothing question, to earn the right to answer one question and for me to answer honestly." The sphinx tempted me for a second, but I brushed the thought, I wasn't going to push my luck.

"Pass." I told her, picked the left hand entrance from where I came into the room, and delved back into the maze.

 **Bianca POV**

Beck, Selina and I all made our way into the labyrinth early the next morning. We wandered through the seemingly endless passage ways, being sure to stay close together so we wouldn't lose anyone. The whole time, I wondered who our last quest member would be. It was probably another child of Athena who would hate my guts for something that wasn't my fault.

But when I thought about, it could be anyone. Hades, it could even be Percy. I could only hope it would be.

"I see a light in the distance, let's go." Selina called and all three of us ran to the light, weapons drawn.

It looked like a school room crossed with a game show stage. The creepy part wasn't even the sphinx cleaning its paws in one of the corners, no, it was all three of our faces with large checks over them. Next to them was the photo of a man in black battle armor. He had twin sheathes over his back.

"Why are there pictures of us in here?" Selina asked

"Because your last quest member answered all your riddles for you. The system needed to wait for you three to pass to reset." The sphinx answered from the corner. Selina and I readied our weapons, but the sphinx made no move to rise. Beck was staring at the fourth guy's picture.

"I recognize those handles." He muttered.

"Which way did our group member go?" I asked the sphinx and she nodded to the door across from where we came in.

We all headed to that tunnel, Selina dragging Beck away from the guy's picture. Beck couldn't seem to get his mind off the guy's swords.

"I knew those swords Selina, I know I do. "He kept saying.

She just dragged him along the hall. We almost made it to and then lit room when the ground began to shake, the walls vibrated.

RRRROOOOOAAARRR

Something let loose a monstrous roar that shook my bones. Before I knew what was happening, Beck and Selina took off forward while I fell into a hidden passage, felt something hard hit my head, and blackness greeted me.

 **Selina POV**

The cavern shook and something I didn't want to meet roared loudly. Charlie grabbed my arm and pulled me forward into the next room just before the wall collapsed behind me.

"That was to close." Charlie said as he hugged me to his chest. Ever since we got together at the beginning of the summer, my life has been so much better. Charlie is the best. My siblings keep telling me to dump him, that it's some kind of rite of passage. That's just a load of BS. Love is love, if you've found it, run with it.

"Yeah, you ok Bianca?" I asked and turned, expecting to see Bianca, but she was gone.

"Bianca!" I cried and started tearing through the rubble.

Charlie started attacking the rubble with me, but we both knew it was useless, Bianca was gone, probably crushed.

"She isn't dead, not yet at least." A sweet voice said from behind us. I turned and saw what awaited us in the room beyond.

There was a picnic laid out on the ground. Standing above it was a woman dressed in white robes, she had a motherly feel, but it also felt cold and full of hate.

"Ah yes, one of my grandchildren, a hard working fine young man, decepted by a skank. I warn you now sweetie, she is going to leave you."

It took everything I had to not run up to the bitch and slap her straight across the face. The only thing stopping me was I figured out who it was, Hera, royal pain in the ass of the gods."

Turns out, I didn't have anything to worry about.

As soon as Charlie heard what his sweet Grandma had to say, he pulled out his axe and threw it at her face.

She easily dodged it, but it was thought that counts.

"Well, you don't have any right to judge my decisions, seeing as you not only threw my father off Olympus, but also cursed him and his children after he got his payback by trapping you to your throne." He said, his voice full of malice, Charlie could be scary when he was angry, but I knew he cared about me seeing as he had me pulled into his chest in a warm embrace.

"How do you know about the curse?" Hera questioned, trying to hide how rattled she was.

"I didn't, just a rumor that has been passed down in the Hephaestus cabin, but now the truth comes out." He held me tighter to him as he spoke. I wonder what the curse was.

"Well played child, but now is not the time for petty squabbles, sit, we have much to discuss concerning your quest." She gestured to the food, and while both Charlie and I reluctantly sat down, neither of us ate the food.

"Don't you know it is polite to eat when offer food in a guests house?" Hera poked at us to eat the food, but neither of us ate the food.

"I was always taught not to accept food from evil witches, it tends to be bad for your health." I quipped back and Hera's face turned an interesting shade of scarlet, I could see veins bulging in her neck and forehead, this was fun.

"I'll ignore that, but here is some other advice. Bianca is with your fourth group member. He has caused quite a stir on Olympus as of late. The only reason he wasn't killed when he reentered the realm of the gods, is that all my brothers swore he wasn't theirs. He is an unknown, a wild card that makes several gods scared. Be wary of him."

"Well who is he then." Charlie asked, probably thinking about the guys sword handles again.

"That's the problem. Apollo has claimed to have met the boy, but some force is hoodwinking him, he can't remember anything else about him, just that he exists.

"So none of the oh-s-mighty Olympians know who he is?" I joked, but Hera gave me the evil eye, I didn't shrink away from her, but I shut up pretty damn fast.

"That should worry you too. We are still unsure if whatever force is hiding him from the gods is hiding him from demi-gods as well."

"So we're just your test dummies to see if he is dangerous, is that it." Charlie asked, standing up and brushing himself off. He then helped me to my feet, always a gentleman.

"No, I am here to warn you to use caution, and that you must beware the jailer, she is most deadly." Hera finished and vanished is a poof of smoke and peacock feathers.

"Well, that was probably the worst family reunion ever." Charlie joked and picked up his axe again.

"This is the Olympian family we're talking about, this probably didn't even scratch the top 100 worst family reunions." I dead panned and we both cracked up. We ended up taking the food Hera left and made our way back into the maze. We noticed things getting hotter as we made our way through, some hallways even lit up with fire. As we made our way we saw a metal spider running down the hallway coming from one of the other hallways that led into the opening. Sprinting after it was the black armored guy, and he was carrying an unconscious Bianca.

And, I basically vanished again, I know, but college prep school and football is seriously kicking my ass. I am going to be trying harder to post more often, especially with Hunters of Fate. Reviews are more than welcome.

Happy reading -Centurion Africanus


	8. Chapter 8-the funny farm

**I don't own PJO or HOO**

 **Bianca POV**

When I finally came too, I was blinded by a bright light from above. I rubbed my eyes and waited for them to adjust to the light. When my eyes adjusted to the light, I saw I was in a desert, and my leg was tied to a fence post.

"You finally came too sis, bout damn time." A voice I knew instantly and I groaned

"Why aren't you at camp Nico, I thought I told you to stay back!"

"Well you lost the right to tell me what to do when you decided to ignore the fact that I was even alive."

"I never did that!"

"Right after you got back from the quest, you completely shut me out. What the hell!"

"I was upset, my best friend might have died at the hands of a giant frickin robot all because I got myself captured, it's my fault everything happened."

"He felt the same. Before he left, he would talk in his sleep. He blamed himself. That you had to push him out of the way. He went so you could come back, and he knew he might not come back, he accepted that."

"But it wasn't his fault."

"Then you never knew how he thought, he thought everything bad that ever happened was his fault."

"No he didn't, you don't know him!"

"I roomed with him for half a year, then saw him suck it up when you went missing, he never cried once, he thought it was his job to be strong for me."

"He didn't even cry when I was taken?"

"No, he was there for me, he acted like a better older sibling than you ever have!"

"Well if you think that, then don't call me your sister ever again, and since dad hasn't bothered contacting you, then you can get out of MY cabin!"

I knew as soon as I said it, I had gone too far, but I didn't take it back. Saying that Percy never cried about me hurt. I had thought he liked me, especially after what happened with Dr. Thorn. But maybe I was wrong.

"Why are we tied to fence posts?" I asked him, but he turned his back to me, pulling his knees up to his chest. He wasn't wearing his ring and my necklace was gone, along with my bag.

"Why tha would be because you're my prisoners little lady." A new voice said from behind me. I scooted around and saw a dude wearing a classic rancher get-up, but he had a sword strapped to his side.

"Then could you let us go, I'm sure this has been some kind of major misunderstanding."

"No maam, boss man gonna get big money for you two, specific orders to get any demi-god that comes through."

"Would your boss be the Titans then?" I asked, trying to find a way out of the situation while Nico was oblivious to the world, I really had gone too far.

"No, they be paying the boss man. After the little one carried you up through the ground calling for help, me and devil here knocked him out real quick like and rassled you up to the posts, when Greyon gets back, he's gonna be so pleased, maybe enough to finally give me a pay raise." He said while petting a two headed small hell hound that was next to him. It growled at me, revealing celestial bronze teeth, it was about the size of a small wolf.

"How long has it been since your last one?"

"Oh, maybe a few centuries, while we were in Britain maybe."

"So you're immortal, and I'm guessing your boss is some kinda monster."

"Now monster is a harsh word, I prefer to call myself extra-ordinary." A new voice said from behind me. When I turned to face him, I had to do a double take. He had three torsos, all connected by one thick beefy neck. He had a two arms like a normal person, but there were two little stump arms connecting his chests. He basically had extra armpits along with the three chests. Gross.

"I see you final did something useful Eurytion, or did little Orthus do all the work." He jeered at the Texas dude, who scowled, obvious getting pissed at Greyon.

"No sir, I got em heading out of the Labyrinth."

"Then they must have been part of the quest we were told to watch for, go back and check near the entrance again, there were supposed to be four, remember." Greyon said while looking down at his farm hand.

"Yes sir, let's go boy." Eurytion grumbled and jogged off in the direction of a large farmhouse.

"Good lad, but he's getting again, might have to kill him and let him spend some time in Tartarus to reflect." Greyon mumbled to himself.

"Ah yes, now we have our honored little guests. The children of Hades by the looks of it. The camp really must be desperate to send two of its three big three kids on this one quest, maybe all three, don't if the annoying fish is here too. You wanna tell me where your buddies are hiding?" Greyon leaned in close to me and I could smell his putrid breath, not as bad as Ladon had been on Mount Orthrys, but pretty bad, like zombie cow.

"I don't even know where they are, any of the three."

"Three, then who's this freak!" he asked as he kicked Nico in the head, knocking him out against the fence post.

"He was just some random guy who followed me."

"Well, then who did you bring, to prevent any other mix-ups, I'm trying to run a business here."

"A business, you mean ambushing demigods, that's just instinct for monsters, not a job."

"No, I have a whole ranch here, we provide food for armies and occasionally, we sell some our _special_ breed to those willing to pay."

"You mean monster cows."

"No, flesh eating horses."

"So you're just a grocery store with a few vicious clerks?"

"Now listen here lady, if eye-patch boy didn't make it clear as day that he wanted all demi-gods alive, I would snap your neck here and now. So shut your trap, my patience will run out eventually." He straightened back up and I saw Eurytion carrying a limp figure in black armor over his shoulders. Orthus following behind him yipping happily.

"Good job Eurytion, now shut your damn dog up and tie em with the other two, Kronos's people should be here by sunset to get em and their latest shipment with that, and that means double pay day for us."

"Good to know boss." Eurytion bent and tied the armored guy to the post between Nico and me. He had a few large cuts on his arms that were slowly closing, but leaking golden blood none the less.

"Can you shut your stupid dog up!" Greyon flipped as Orthus kept barking happily, probably expecting treats for a job well done.

"Don't speak dog, sorry." Eurytion snapped and Greyon growled.

"I'll do it myself then." He moved forward quickly and crushed one of the dog's two heads under his giant foot and I could hear its neck snap. The crushed head vanished in a golden light, leaving behind a terrified one headed small wolf/dog.

"I've told you not to do that, it hurts him a lot, and when the head regrows too!" Eurytion freaked, scooping up the dog and cradled it to his chest, maybe he had a heart after all.

"And I told you to shut him up, were even, now go kill one of the calves, I am feasting tonight."

"What about us!" I called to him, and he glared down at me.

"I'm going to sell you, plain and simple."

"Can't I do anything to convince you to let us go?" I begged, trying to get Nico and myself out of here, and the stranger guy who got the actual quest group past the sphinx, he probably was an Athena kid, shame it wasn't Percy. I was beginning to doubt him, maybe he had just run off. Or he had died and my dad was lying to me, which was not coll.

"What would you be willing to do?" Eurytion asked, a sparkle in his eyes, this might not end well.

"A lot."

"Then maybe she can clean stable 5." He suggested and Greyon's eyes lit up light Christmas lights.

"Deal, if she can clean stable 5 by sunset, I let all three of them go free, if not, then she will probably die and we can get pay for the other two, a win-win."

"What's in stable 5?" I asked cautiously.

"Just our vicious clerks as you put it." He grinned evilly and my stomach dropped.

"This the only way?"

"If Eurytion hadn't given me the idea, then you would have no options, so do we have a deal."

"Fine, can I get my weapon back to defend myself at least?"

"No, we would kill you the second you inevitably tried to free yourself, and that would waste our time and energy, so no, Eurytion, lead her to the stables, I'll get the barbeque going." He walked off to the ranch house, humming a happy tune, acting like he just won the lotto or something.

"I hate that guy." Eurytion growled, his eyes becoming a dark red.

"Then why do you stick around here?" I asked as he untied me.

"My dad, Ares, made me immortal back in Ancient times, said I was a fantastic warrior, then he sent me to guard that jackass because he raises the cows that makes the steaks he likes, I' basically Ares's personal butcher boy."

"And he'll punish you over his cold cuts?"

"He'll send me on another tour de Tartarus, which is not a pleasant experience. If Greyon were to die though, and this necklace and ring found its way to you and your buddy, or, gods forbid, the armor guy finds his swords around back of the closest barn to the post he's tied to, I could catch a several century break from all the shit I usually deal with and maybe speed your quest along." He pitched, holding out my necklace and Nico's ring.

"Then I would say Greyon is about to spend a few centuries in Tartarus, any tips for cleaning the stables?"

"No clue, been trying to figure out how to clean that stable for years, lost a finger once even. You'll think of something though, you big 3 kids usually do." He said with a grin and walked off back towards the tractor that brought us out to the stable.

Now to see how bad these stables really are. I walked in the front door and immediately gagged. The barn itself must have been air tight because outside it didn't smell close to this bad. It smelled worse than anything, and the occupants of the barn weren't much better.

There were about 20 pure black horses all lining the stalls, when I walked in, they all started banging their heads against the steel bars separating me from them. All the stench was coming from huge piles of crap in front of each stall, and there seemed to be more behind the horses too, this was going to be impossible.

Once I had surveyed the mess, I made my way back outside so I could breathe again. I saw a river near the stables and I collapsed next to it. I had to think of a way to get rid of all that crap. I thought back to what Eurytion had said, and I remembered the myth.

Hercules had bent a river, probably the river in front of me, and used it to power wash the stables. I sure as hell knew I wasn't going to be able to bend a river, but I got an idea. I walked to the river's edge and was met with a girl's face glaring back at me. Perfect.

"Are you the naiad of this river?"

"Yes, which means I am not going to let you use my river to clean any filthy horse stables, Greyon uses my river as a dumping site enough without the another child of the pompous gods mucking it up with loads of horse crap again."

"I have a better idea, one that will help you get some payback of Greyon, if you're up for it."

"I'm listening."

I told her my plan and she grinned back at me.

"I can sacrifice that to get my payback, let's do this sister." She smiled and manipulated a medium sized ball of water out of the river and sent it to the barn.

I followed the water and called directions to her and she got the water to scrub down every surface in the whole barn, collecting all the crap until there was a giant ball of crap inside a thin skin of water, the horses were shaking their heads around and seemed generally pissed off at their sudden bath.

I focused on the shadows inside the barn and split the crap in half. I forced half of it to shadow travel on top of a certain cabin back at camp half-blood, and to the other half to the large porch of Greyon's front porch.

I almost collapsed at the use of my powers, but I leaned against one of the freshly cleaned walls and caught my breath.

When I made back outside the barn, Eurytion was waiting for me with the tractor.

"Well, judging by the amount of shit than fell right on top of Greyon while he was trying to barbeque, you might have gotten about half of it done."

"All, you can check, the rest of the shit I sent as a special gift to a good friend of mine."

"Remind me to never piss you off then." He joked and poked his head inside the barn and whistled.

"Damn, this is cleaner than when Hercules cleaned it, how'd ya do it?"

"A little help from nature, with the promise of some payback."

"Remind me to do that next time." He said and saluted to the river, which splashed water into his face.

"That's probably for all the literal crap she's had to deal with."

"Note to me, work with river instead of dump into it."

"Good lesson."

"Now come on, you still gotta deal with Greyon, who is mad beyond belief, even worse than when Hercules killed him."

"As long as he lets my friends go, he can be as mad as he likes."

"By the way, who is the armored guy, I couldn't get his helmet off and he sure packs a killer swing with his swords?"

"No idea, I think a child of Athena because he beat a sphinx's riddles for the whole group."

"Fights like a child of Ares, that's for sure, but I could see Athena, well, have fun with Greyon." He said as he stopped the tractor near Nico and the armored guy, who was still out.

As I walked past Nico, I dropped his ring into his lap and kept going.

"YOU!" Greyon shrieked at me he bounded towards me throwing aside the towels he was using to clean all the shit off himself.

"WHAT DID YOU DO!?" he bellowed and I had to try not to laugh at him, he looked ridiculous and smelled awful.

"I cleaned your barn, you never said where you wanted the waste, so I gave it to you to decide what to do with it."

"Well, you go throw it somewhere else, I don't want all that crap!"

"That wasn't part of the deal, so we'll be on our way now."

"You ain't goin anywhere girlie, you never made me swear on the Styx see, so I can still beat you senseless, sell you to Kronos, and have my payday, but I do thank you for giving Eurytion some new work, he had an excuse to not shovel crap before, now he'll be doin it until till I say to stop."

"So you're a backstabbing double crosser?"

"I'm a monster, whatd ya expect, me to just let ya go?"

"It would have been nice, but oh well."

I drew my morning star from my necklace and swung it as hard as I could at his middle chest. I heard the crack and crunch of bones shattering and blood spurted from his chest, even I had to wince.

But instead of dissolving like a normal monster, Greyon kicked me back and let the blood flow down his chest, slowly but surely, his chest put itself back together.

"See why only Hercules has beaten me, you gotta kill all-o-me at once. But I will take joy in killing you and selling your friends, but that would waste my time, kill her Eurytion."

"Do it yourself, I'm done doing your dirty work, for you, I'm justa spectator here." Eurytion growled at Greyon, petting Orthus the whole time.

"I'll deal with you later boy, I'll just kill the girl myself."

He charged me, but I jumped back and avoided him as best I could, but I was exhausted from using my powers earlier and that made it more difficult to avoid his extra-long reach.

He eventually got me with a solid punch to the chest and I felt one of my rib crack. I flew back into the fence post that had the armored guy and got wind knocked out of me again. I felt my consciousness slipping, but I got up and cut the binding on the armored guy. Eurytion threw me a set of sheathes and I set them next to the armored guy.

"Well, goodbye little lady." Greyon growled, slowly making his way to me, cracking his hairy knuckles.

"What the Hades." The armored guy mumbled, finally coming to. I turned to check on Nico, but all I saw was some cut rope. Nico was gone.

"Get up and help me dumb-ass." I told the armored guy and he hopped to his feet and pulled out his swords, they weren't normal swords, but hooked ones, a defensive twist on an offensive weapon, smart.

"We just killing big ugly, or ranch boy over there too, I would prefer the both as payback for the nasty headshot from earlier." He growled at Eurytion, who just shrugged.

"He's helping us, just help me kill Greyon."

"Now I get to kill two of you brats, maybe the titans will pay me for bodies." Greyon wondered out loud before trying to punch at me, armor guy caught his fist in his swords in an x and pulled down, severing Greyon's hand from his body.

Greyon let out a howl of rage and swung his other fist at the armor guy, catching him in the arm, forcing him to drop one of his swords.

"Damn it." Armor guy grunted and stayed defensively on my left side.

"I will kill you both slowly." He grunted as his hand slowly reattached itself to his arm.

"How do we kill him?" I asked armor guy as I leapt back from another punch

"No idea, maybe kill all three chests at once."

"That's gonna be difficult."

"Yeah, keep dodging for now, I'll try to think of something."

We kept dodging and beating the tar out of Greyon, but we couldn't kill him and he kept healing, Eurytion was nowhere to be found.

"Just let me kill you brats!" Greyon screamed in frustration.

"What powers can you use?" the guy called to me and I shook my head

"Too tired right now, can't do shit."

"Then stand back." He said and threw his sword at Greyon.

Greyon knocked the sword aside easily, but he started shrieking in pain right after, he started smoking, his skin turning red and blistery.

I looked at armor guy and he was focusing some kind of energy at him and was basically cooking Greyon.

Greyon slowly turned black and crispy and then fell apart, leaving only ash and gold dust.

"Thanks." I said to him and he shrugged, picking his swords back up and sheathing them on his back.

"That's what friends are for right?" he answered and I frowned

"Who are you again?"

"Right, stupid helmet." He said and took his helmet off.

He had long shaggy white hair and pure white skin. His pale yellow eyes gleamed just like remembered.

"Percy!" I squealed and tackle hugged him.

"Good to see you too Bi." He gave me a tight hug. Then we realized what position we were in and quickly got ourselves back up.

Then I started going at him.

"WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW WORRIED I HAVE BEEN ABOUT AND HOW YOU SUPPOSEDLY DIED TRYING TO SAVE ME AT THE HANDS OF SOME GIANT FRICKIN ROBOT, DID YOU EVER STOP TO THINK I SAVED YOU SO YOU WOULDN'T GET KILLED, THAT I CARE ABOUT WHAT HAPPENS TO YOU!"

I burst out crying and he gave me another tight hug. It felt good to have someone I could trust with everything again. My friends at camp were nice and all, but Percy was different.

"It was my fault that you had to carry the sky in the first place, the Manticore had me pinned down and you saved my sorry ass, I'm just trying to make up for getting you hurt." He mumbled, but I smacked him.

"I choose to save you and that got me hurt, which is my choice, not your fault."

"Then I wasn't strong enough to beat the robot and keep it together long enough to get you out of there myself, I wasn't good enough!" he was crying silently

"You had like what, a week of training, less, you did fine, and you aren't weak, not at all."

He finally let me go and nodded. "Ok, right, now I heard I was on a quest of sorts from a sphinx, what did I get myself into this time?"

"Well for starts, we are trying to find Daedalus and convince him to give us Ariadne's string so we can get it to camp so Luke and Kronos can't use it."

"Who's Luke?"

"He's the guy who captured me, the manticore's boss."

"You mean blonde scar face?"

"Yeah, how'd you know?"

"Dream, I saw everything that happened on mt. Orthrys, Annabeth dying wasn't your fault by the way."

"Thank you, most of the camp has been giving me hell about that."

"Not the cool ones right, like Beck, Selina, Lee and Thalia, right?"

"No, they are all my friends, Clarisse, the Stolls, Will and Jake too. Thalia joined the hunt though."

"Didn't know that, but she might like it. Was there a prophecy with this quest like the last one I went on?"

"Yeah, it's _Four shall delve into the endless maze Separate from start until time of raze One shall feel the wrath of the ghost king's hand A child of Athena's final stand Destroy with a heroes final breathe An exchange to retrieve what's been lost in the west."_

"Sounds about right so far, I was separate from the start and Selina and Beck aren't here now so it isn't raze time yet, but I have no idea about the rest of it."

It was nearly sunset at this point and Eurytion was sprinting towards us, Orthus was gone.

"Kronos's forces are here, I tried to slow them down, but they're almost here get back to the labyrinth before they find you." He hissed while pulling an arrow out of his leg.

"Got it." Percy and put his helmet back on. Now that I know its Percy in the armor, I have to admit, it looks good on him.

"Too late." Eurytion said as another arrow pierced his back from behind and he faded into gold dust. Percy and I were left facing a group of Dracaena and Luke himself. The dracaena all had bows and Luke had his sword drawn and pointed at me.

"Surrender now and no one gets hurt, master has big plans for you girl." He hissed at me and I pulled on my necklace and summoned my morning star.

"Never again scar butt, its payback time."

"I got the dracaena, I'll leave you to the revenge." Percy said and drew his hook swords. We both leapt forward, Percy deflecting the arrows at an insane pace and me swinging my morning star full force at Luke. He tried to block the blow, but the force dented his sword and pushed him back several feet.

He swung his freshly dented sword back at me with insane speeds, I could barely keep up, and as a result, I got several cuts on my arms.

Luke gave me a vicious kick to the chest and I fell back. He tried for a power downwards slash, but I rolled out of the way in time and swept his legs out from under him. He jumped back up quickly and slashed with a wild swing. I tried to get my morning star up in time, but he knocked it out of my hands.

"Any last words Hades spawn?" he gloated over me, his sword pressed to my throat. His sword was bent and deformed and he had a small cut on his head, but he had a grin like a maniac.

"Not again you bastard!" Percy roared from behind him and charged Luke full force. I was still out of breath and my broken rib was killing me.

I watched Percy and Luke go at it, but they were both blurs in the fading sunlight. Percy going nuts with his two hook sword while Luke kept even pace with his bent one.

They both kept going until night fell, that's when Luke started to get an advantage, he began using more power in his strikes, driving Percy back, who seemed to be tiring.

But I was feeling better, the night was full of shadows, and that gave me a power boost. I managed to get back up and got my morning star back in my hand. I made my way quietly to where Luke was now full on laying into Percy, leaving dents in his armor, which was chipping apart.

When I was close enough, I swung at Luke's leg and he went down screaming. His knees was impaled by several spikes and his leg completely gave out on him. He wasn't going anywhere anytime soon.

I ran to get Percy, who was bruised, but ok. I could feel my ribs grating in pain, but I bit it down. I helped Percy up and he pulled his helmet off. He had a black eye and his lip was bleeding, but he was ok.

"Thanks for that, as soon as the sunset, I felt weaker instantly."

"I never got to ask, but who is your godly parent?"

"No idea, I've met him, but he never says who he is, he says that will put me in danger."

"Well, what does he look, maybe I saw him at the Olympian party that was on the winter Solstice."

"He was albino like me, and he never doesn't wear his blue tinted ray-bands. He's about 6'3" whenever I see him, athletic looking."

"Never seen a god like that."

"That's what I thought, I've been thinking, he might be a Titan, or a primordial, like from mythomagic."

"Titan maybe, which would explain why he doesn't want to be known. But I don't think primordial are still around, from what all of the gods say, they all stopped playing an active role in life millennia ago."

"I'm not sure though, if they are primordials they could easily hide form the gods, so I'm not crossing it out, and besides, how cool would it be to be a child of a primordial."

"Sure Percy." I joked, then I felt a dull pain at the base of my skull, and everything went really black.

 _ **Bianca dream**_

I jolted up, trying to see who hit me, but I wasn't anywhere near the ranch. I was back on mount Orthrys. The half-built palace at the top was mostly done, only detail work and a few pillars were still swirling around in the fog.

I jumped into a shadow as a group of monsters came past. I didn't know if this was real or a dream, but I decided to play it safe. I crept through the shadows, making my way to the castle.

I made my past several groups of monsters and one batch of rogue demi-gods, all wearing golden armor bits. I got lost once or twice, but I finally made my way to the throne room. Two of the thrones in the main room were half built, one looked someone took a hammer to the sun and beat it into the shape of a chair.

The other one looked like the sky threw up in the shape of a chair. Constellations were patterned all over it with scorpion at the head rest.

The next three were complete. One was silver with inlaid patterns of what looked like zombies, it was wider and taller than the other two's bases were. Another completed one was made out of a pure red coral with pearls inlaid in wave designs.

The last completed throne was made of a green marble than had veins of sapphire running through it, reflecting the light around it to make it more regal looking, it had a slimmer build, more suited for a Titaness.

The one that worried me though, was the gigantic golden one in the middle of the room. It was almost complete, only missing one large chunk at its heart. It had a design of an hourglass crossed with a scythe on just about every surface that made it aesthetically pleasing.

The throne of Kronos, almost complete. And I definitely didn't want to be around when that happened.

I tried to leave, but my body wasn't listening to me, guess it was a dream after all. I took closer look at the room, the parts away from the thrones. It was then I noticed the guy kneeling in front of a golden coffin he was fairly well built, and he had the two colored sword Luke had when I was last here next to him.

"My lord, we have found the one you requested and he is considering, but he will most probably join us and make you complete, I prepare to make my journey to become the vessel. Everything is going as planned, Luke has been sent on a rehab mission, time will tell if his spirit is truly broken."

"Good." A deep raspy voice said from the coffin, it made my hair stand on end and a shiver go down my spine. "He may well recover, but you have proven stronger, go, Iapetus will await you at the source, you have pleased me greatly, and the boy will accept, the fates are with us, in time, Olympus will fall."

With that last freaky remark, the boy impaled the dual sword through the floor and turned and walked my way. When I saw his face, I was surprised, he had an Asian complexion, dark black hair that was in an army buzz cut, and an eyepatch over his left eye. He definitely looked tougher than Luke ever did, he was about 18 or 19.

As he walked past me, he turned to face me, as if he could actually see me.

"Soon everything will change, the cards have been dealt, the exchange has been made, and it is only the beginning of what is to come."

With that closing remark, I felt everything fade away and I fell back into unconsciousness.

 **Percy POV**

When Luke snuck up behind Bianca and bashed her head with the butt of his sword, I kinda lost my cool.

So far my day has been up and down. Down, got knocked out by two-headed dog while fighting rancher guy. Up, I found Bianca again. Down, she got hurt fighting Greyon, up, we killed Greyon and reconnected. Down, Luke and those monsters attacked. Biggest down of the down, Luke started beating the seven shades of shit out of me when the sunset, I wasn't strong enough. AGAIN. And now Luke knocks out Bianca, who can blame me for snapping.

I started whaling on him with my hook swords, targeting his already hurt leg. When we had fought our way close enough to the farm house, I kicked him into a huge pile of what he probably hoped was only dirt. Once he was down, I hooked his sword and flung it across the ranch.

I held my swords over his throat in an x, waiting to tear his neck apart, but I hesitated, did I really want to execute him?

"Just kill me already, going back now will be worse, they already replaced me, this was my one chance." He said and I looked into his eyes. I could see how broken he looked, completely shattered.

"You aren't who I expected you to be." I commented and he shook his head

"I probably was every bit as evil as you thought I was, maybe even worse, but all that changed when I killed my sister in everything but blood. I stabbed her, I actually stabbed her." He burst out crying, his whole body shook as tears poured down his face.

"My whole life fell apart, I killed part of my family instead of reuniting it. I can't go apologize, what I did was awful and can't be undone, this was my one chance to prove to Kronos that I am still useful, but I failed this too, no matter where I go, I end up dead."

The tears kept pouring down his face, he had lost everything, and everyone wanted him dead. I couldn't execute him, maybe it was my weakness showing through again, but I couldn't.

"Then run." I said and took my swords away from his throat he looked at me, shocked."

"Where, the gods and titans will be hunting me, everywhere will be a death trap for me. And how can I live with myself after I killed Annabeth, she was my little sister, I swore to protect her!" he was basically hysterical at this point.

"But you know what you did was wrong, every second of it. You want to fix everything, you would give anything to go back and save her. If she cared for you like you obviously do for her, then she would be happy to see you back on the right path, striving for to do good again. She would forgive you and be proud of you for breaking away from the titans, she would understand that the gods wouldn't take you back. She would help you every step of the way."

"Do you really think so?" he asked in a small voice, like a small child looking for reassurance.

"I know so. On top of that, how far can they really influence, maybe Hawaii or Alaska is safe?" I asked, he knew more about this than I did anyway.

"I don't know about Hawaii, but I know Alaska is out of godly range, maybe the Titans too." He started to look hopeful that made me glad.

"Then take this and go build a new life, stay good this time, second chances don't come often." I handed him Eurytion's sword from the ground, it wasn't anything special, but he took it and hugged me, yeah, that wasn't dirt he landed on.

"I can never thank you enough, if you ever find yourself in Alaska, just give me a sign, you've got a friend in me there."

"Good to know, now you better get going, who knows what is going to happen on this funny farm tonight." I joked and he chuckled.

"I don't even know who you are, but you probably have better character than all the gods except Hestia."

"Thanks, and I'm Percy, Percy Jackson." I said and I shook his hand.

"You really should wear black armor though, doesn't match your skin." He joked and I gave a weak laugh.

"Just get going."

"Thanks again!" he called as he sprinted off into the night, the darkness swallowing him.

"Now to try and wake Bianca up." I muttered to myself and grabbed two bags from the front porch, mine, and what I am guessing was Bianca's

I took the nectar from mine and forced the unconscious Bianca to drink some. I could see her cuts closing, but her ribs would have to wait until she woke up and ate some ambrosia.

"You did something to other demigod would do, why?" a quiet voice from behind me nearly gave me a heart attack. When I turned around, I instantly relaxed. Lady Hestia was sitting in front on a makeshift fire, gazing at me expectantly.

"I had Luke down, I had my swords over his throat, but when I looked at him, I saw someone who had given up long ago, someone who had done something they could never forgive themselves for. He had lost hope, I couldn't kill him, I know it was weak that I let him go, but killing people who truly repent, who knew their wrongs and regretted them fully, wishing they could have any chance to go back and undo them, that wasn't something I could do and then sleep at night. It would have made me as bad as him." I explained to her, gazing intently at unconscious Bianca in the fire light.

"Even though he hurt the one you love, you let him go, you had sworn vengeance, but instead you gave him hope, I don't think that makes you weak, I think that makes you one of the strongest demi-gods  
I have ever met."

"You really think so Lady Hestia?" I asked, glancing up at her, I was surprised to see an expression of approval on her face.

"You returned hope to him when he was empty, that is harder than all 12 of Hercules tasks. He simply instilled fear and awe into people, hope is something the world needs so much more than fear."

"Then what do I do next, I have no idea what I am doing, I just am trying to protect those I care about."

"Then do that, I have healed Bianca. I will keep you both safe here for the night, but she will be out for longer than that, the fates are showing her something important. With Luke out of the picture, the Titans need a new demi-god leader."

"Thank you Lady Hestia, your help is most appreciated." I gave her a bow but she giggled and waved me off.

"Don't call me lady or bow, I am not like the rest of my family, we are related, one way or another, and family shouldn't act like mortal business men."

"That's another thing, I have no family." I mumbled and she gave me a curious look.

"Us gods know nothing about you, I couldn't even remember your name until I came here, following a new source of hope, but I know enough to know that whoever your godly parent is, they are hoodwinking the entire council. And this young lady here has taken many blows for you, and you for her, you are closer than many blood related siblings, but I can tell you feel more than that for her." She added as a joke and my face went scarlet, which is an accomplishment for me with my complexion.

"Is it that obvious?" I asked meekly

"More than you would think." She chuckled and gave me one last smile.

"Here is a sleeping bag for the night, be safe Percy." She said and vanished into the fire. Wait, did she say sleeping bag, like, one?

When I looked back at Bianca, I saw her wrapped in a thermal sleeping bag, just the one. It seems Hestia has a sense of humor.

I took my armor off and lay down next to the sleeping bag in my sweats. After a few minutes I realized how cold the desert was at night and made a tough call. Hestia had said Bianca would be out for longer than the morning right? I climbed into the sleeping bag with her and she instantly cuddled up against me, grabbing me and sighing into my sweat shirt, looks like I can't get out now it I wanted to.

I closed my eyes and floated off into the realm of sleep.

 **Chiron POV (change the scenery a little)**

This has been the wort day at camp since the civil war.

Darren had let slip to the younger campers about the impending attack and now everyone was in a panic, at least we could prepare a defense without people wondering what we were doing.

During archery, Darren ended up almost killing 3 campers with his terrible aim, then declared it was their fault for being in his shot. Like 50ft behind him was in his shot.

And to top it all off, a pile of crap the size of an entire cabin appeared over the Poseidon cabin while Darren was inside, and no one would help him dig his way out. He eventually threatened to IM his father to punish us all if we didn't help him that I made it a camp activity to dig him out. Once he was out however, the Stolls threw him into a sack of manure that they had collected and threw him into the forest.

And it doesn't seem like the coming days are going to get any better. They just aren't heroes like the ones of old.

 **Well, it's been a while. It took me some time to get enough content for one chapter because I like having longer chapters for this story while doing shorter ones for my other story. I hit writers block there, so I finished this one up. Big thanks to anyone who reads either of my stories, it means so much to me to have your support. Reviews welcome.**

 **Happy Reading-Centurion Africanus**


	9. Chapter 9-eruption

**I don't own PJO or HOO**

 **Percy POV**

When I woke up the next morning, everything was still black. I sat up, freaking out for a second, but I realized I was still in the sleeping bag with Bianca and the black was her hair.

I carefully pulled her out and pack any useful supplies I could find in the ranch house, careful to always keep one eye on Bianca, there was no way in Hades I was going to let anything bad happen to her.

When I had packed both bags full of any rations I could find, I slung both bags over my back, put the helmet of my now fairly dented armor back on, and gently picked Bianca up. I jogged with her back to the labyrinth entrance and plunged back into the darkness.

I wanted to say I had a plan, but I had no idea where I was going or what I was supposed to be doing besides from completing a quest and finding Selina and Beck. I ran blindly through the maze for a while, but I noticed the paths were becoming brighter, the walls looking more like black glass.

I heard a vicious roar from behind us and I just took off, I couldn't fight something huge and carry Bianca at the same time. I kept running until I saw a large archway in the distance. I kept going until I was through the arch.

"Hey wait up dude!" A familiar voice called from behind me. I turned and found Beck and Selina chasing after me.

"So are you the forth quest member?" Selina asked

"Yup, good to see you again guys." Of course that got some confused looks, I really need to just full up lose the armor. I pulled my helmet off and gave them a sideways grin.

"PERCY" they shouted in unison and tried to jump me, but I moved back quickly so Bianca wouldn't fall.

"We can catch up later, we have to focus on the quest right now, and Bianca mostly filled me in." I told them and they nodded.

"So where are we exactly?" Beck asked, looking around at what looked like the inside of a volcano.

"You have found your way to me my son, Nice to see you Charles." A gravelly voice came from the doorway on the other side of the volcano hallway. Standing there was a giant man, maybe 6'7", he had fairly strong looking arms, but two robots were supporting him, his legs were both in bulky metal braces. His hair and shaggy beard had what looked like sparks running through it. His face was deformed and twisted, like a boxer who had lost a match with a flaming hammer.

"Dad?" Beck cautiously asked, looking a little hopeful.

"Yes boy that would be me." The disfigured smith god chuckled, he clearly was uncomfortable with the entire situation.

Beck looked stunned for a second, he cautiously approached his dad, like he was trying to sneak up on a bull that might suddenly turn and charge.

"I'm not gonna hurt you Charles, I'm your father for Zeus's sake." Despite being socially removed, the smith god could obviously recognize how nervous his son was.

Beck ran forward and almost knocked Hephaestus over, not with a hug though, but a solid punch to the gut.

The forge god let out a grunt and fell to one knee, his leg brace releasing a hiss of steam and bending to accommodate.

Beck turned from Hephaestus and marched to the back of the cavern, presumably into Hephaestus's forge. My theory was confirmed a few minutes when I could hear the bangs of a hammer at a forge.

Selina discreetly flipped off the forge god and made her way back to the forge where Beck was.

I watched the robots next to the forge god help him up, his expression was blank, void of any emotion.

"If you don't mind me asking Lord Hephaestus, why would your own son hit you?" I asked the forge god gently, trying to avoid angering him further.

Hephaestus simply grunted and gestured for me to follow him into a side room. I carried Bianca the whole way, she was slowly beginning to stir. Hephaestus motioned for me to put her on a bed that was in the room. I placed her gently on the bed and gave her a light kiss on her forehead.

I followed Hephaestus back into the main area and into the forge. Beck was furiously pounding a large sheet of metal into a chest plate. Selina was trying in vain to calm him now.

"Beck, I'm sure he's tried everything, but you know how she can be, all the stories agree." She said while rubbing his back soothingly. Beck finally put the hemmer down and threw the chest piece aside into a cooling bucket. He then drew Selina into a long kiss.

I groaned and turned away, partly because it gross that two of my best friends were making out in front of me, partly because I hadn't done the same with Bianca yet.

Hephaestus cleared his throat and Beck reluctantly pulled away from Selina.

"Yes Lord Hephaestus?" he asked in a bitter tone. I had no idea why Beck was acting like this, he was never mad at anyone, ever.

"I had no idea until she told you son, I swear I will try to get her to reverse it." He said, I was still clueless.

"Anyone want to tell me what the Hades is going on here?" I asked

"Charlie and I ran into Hera after we lost Bianca, he tricked her into admitting she cursed Hephaestus and his children." Selina said while rubbing circles on Beck's back, calming him down.

"And I had no idea, when we have our next meeting, I am going to make her reverse it." Hephaestus grunted, his beard starting to smoke, his eyes dancing with an angry bitter flame.

"Well, all the family drama aside, we must be here for a reason, the labyrinth led here so what are we supposed to do Lord Hephaestus?" I cut into what was probably going to turn into a long, angry and loud argument between father and son.

"If you are looking for work, one of my forges keeps getting broken into, but whatever is doing it flees when it senses my presence. If you lot could go find and preferably kill whatever is breaking into their, that would be most helpful, in exchange, I'll help your quest along." He pulled out a map and marked a spot on it. The he pulled a full sized automaton from his pocket and set it on the ground.

"This will lead you to my forge if you decide to go." He said and gestured to the automation, which started walking out the door.

"You two go, I'll stay here with Bianca." Selina started pushing us out the door, but didn't let Beck go without another quick cough long cough make out session, I had to hold back a groan.

Once they were done, Beck and I jogged and quickly caught up with the slow automaton.

"So how's things at camp?" I struck up a conversation with Beck, the quiet was unnerving.

"Actually quite terrible. Nico went completely Goth, Chiron is disheartened, Darren is an even bigger prick than before, and Bianca is completely out of whack." He grumbled, I was surprised.

"All because of me, but I can hardly do anything, I'm just me."

"And that right there is why so many people miss you. You act like a real hero, not like Darren or his goons."

"Because they can do stuff, they can fight, all I've managed to do is not get blown up inside a giant robot."

"That's actually more than Darren or any of his goons have done. He makes himself seem like a bigshot, but Annabeth and Grover on his first quest, he sat back and did nothing. On his second quest, he wasn't even supposed to be there, he snuck himself and Annabeth out with his half-brother who he bullied into going. Clarisse and Tyson did all the work, but Tyson was killed in the end, and all Darren had to say was good riddance."

"But Darren beats up everyone up in the arena, if he does nothing, how could he be so good?"

"Have you ever looked at who he fights? Only his friends who let him win and people with no experience."

"And you're saying he got worse than when I was last there?"

"Yeah, he sends probably 3 or 4 younger kids to the infirmary every day, and no one can stop him because they may risk Poseidon's wrath."

"I knew him before he was at camp, the same thing happened then, no one said anything because of his rich family."

"That's why we need you back, you may have gotten crushed by him, but he ended up just as bad, he couldn't bully anyone for a week. Best week of camp in years, and you did that, no one else."

"I didn't know I made a difference at all, I thought I was just a punching bag, someone the gods would push around for fun, I've been treated like dirt my whole life."

"I don't anything before camp, but you are strong, I've seen it, you went toe to toe with Artemis's best hunter before you got even a week's worth of training, we need you back, I sure as Hades know Bianca does."

"I had no idea, I'll come back, for sure, I wasn't trying to be gone forever anyway, I was temporarily held hostage in a junkyard by my father." I groaned, remembering how I had just appeared back in the middle of the junkyard, Leo hammering away at fixing the giant Talos again.

"So you know who your father is?"

"No, he shows up in dreams sometimes, and influences what's happening around me, but he won't tell me who he is."

"He'll tell you eventually, he bothers to help you, which is a good sign, he cares, just sounds scared." Beck said, we had reached a second volcano entrance at this point, Mt. St Helens.

"Guess this is our stop." I made my way into the forge, quickly followed by Beck.

When we were inside, we snuck through the passageways until we made it to the center. There were multiple hanging platforms hanging over a bubbling pit of lava that was the floor of the entire center of the volcano.

"Careful!" a shrill voice cried from one of the higher platforms. I looked at Beck and pointed up, the made a quiet motion, he nodded in response. We made our way up one of the narrow paths along the side of the volcano and soon made it to the platform where we heard the yelling.

I wasn't quite sure what they were, but some sort of monster was hammering away at an anvil, the blade it was forging was curved and I could feel it radiating an evil aura.

When the dog-seal thing that had human arms and legs stopped hammering, two more carefully picked up the red hot blade and dipped in a vat of a red liquid that probably wasn't Kool-Aid.

When they pulled the blade back out, I could see clearly what it was. I was part Celestial bronze, part mortal steel, and some kind of gold. The base of the hilt had an hourglass design. The blade itself was thin, but layered, all the metals looked pressed together like it had gone through a trash compacter, several times. It was a work of art, but the amount of evil and death that came off it made me want to hide. This could only be one weapon.

Kronos's scythe.

I gave Beck a sideways glance, and his jaw was basically in the lava, he was staring in awe at the forging masterpiece.

"Good, master shall be pleased, only a few more hammerings and at least two more cooling's in blood and it should be done." What looked to be the lead...thing... said, obviously proud of the work that was happening here, it made me sick however.

"Poseidon will regret the day he cast us out, we shall show him the Telkhines are the greatest forgers the world has to offer!" The lead one continued, raising a fist and starting a chant.

"UP WITH THE TITANS DOWN WITH OLYMPUS!"

Beck pulled me aside and whispered to me, "I've heard of these guys, they worked for Poseidon, but when he caught them cursing the weapons they were making for them, he cursed them to never be able to forge below the seas again, then he banished them to dry land, but maintain their aquatic properties."

"We have to get back to your dad now, we can't take this many without getting killed ourselves, and we need to warn camp, Kronos may be coming."

"I SMELL DEMIGOD" one of the sea dogs just had to shout, sending the others into a frenzy, grabbing various weapons from around them.

"You go Beck, tell the others, I'll hold them off." I pushed him to the exit, but he stood his ground.

"Not again, you get the happy ending today, go back to my father, warn Olympus."

"We go together, we take them out and destroy the blade, deal?" I held my hand out for a hand shake, but Beck clasped my forearm in a strong grip,

"Let's hope one of us gets out of here alive then, so what's the plan?" he grinned and I looked again down at the lava, it gave me an idea.

I quickly told him my plan, most of it at least, I didn't want him freaking out, while he marched up to the platform to stall the Telkhines, I jumped into the volcano.

I could feel myself getting a little bit warm, but I couldn't feel myself burning. Guess I could check lava proof off my list of weird power related to heat. That seemed to be the only recurring theme in my powers.

When I sunk to the bottom, I saw something I was completely unprepared for. I wasn't standing on mantle near the Erath's crust, I was standing on a head, a giant horrible terrifying head, and it was in a panic.

"Why are you here light born, do you come to free your father, or are you of shadows, here to free your lord?" His voice was deep and worried, I had no idea what it was, but the monster I was standing on seemed to be acting like a prison guard.

"Who are you, who are you guarding?" I asked and he jerked his head behind him, where two boxes, one made of pure sunlight, the other of the blackest metal I had ever seen. Some kind of shadow liquid was ripping from the light box, while a small ray of light came from the black box.

When the beam of light landed on me, both boxes started rumbling, I could feel the light on me intensifying, making me feel powerful, stronger than I had ever felt before.

The liquid pouring from the other box had turned into a serpent that was slithering towards me with great speed, I went to leap away, but it was never aiming for me. It bit the great guard I was standing on clean in the forehead and slipped in through the hole it made.

The giant I was on stumbled and roared in fury, his skin from where the snake entered outwards quickly turning a sickly gray color, like a storm.

"AT LAST A CONCIOUS TO CONTROL! TYPHOON IS MINE AGAIN, WE SHALL SEND THE GODS TO THEIR KNEES!" A deep and dark boomed from the light box, but it was quickly repeated by the giant, who I know knew was Typhoon, the giant that almost tore Olympus down in ancient times.

He left out a great breathe and thousands of gallons of lava with me in it went shooting upwards, actually according to plan, minus anything alive in the lava, but I forgot to warn Beck what was coming. I heard a loud explosion and felt the volcano erupt, both Beck and I still inside.

 **Beckendorf POV**

Percy told me he could find a way to make the volcano erupt, then he would yell for me to get out of the way, I only had to distract the Telkhines long enough for him to pull it off.

I walked proudly onto the platform, some loose armor from around the forge thrown over me and a giant battle axe in my hands, all the loose equipment laying around this place is actually helpful, not just a pointless mess.

When I got close enough the Telkhines, I swung my axe in a huge arc, killing about five of them and getting their attention pretty damned fast.

"So, a forge spawn, sent by his father to die, you don't have to die you know, our lord searches for one more, just one, come with us, be the one." The lead one jumped right into pitching some crazy idea, I grabbed an anvil from beside me and chucked it at him, damn that thing was heavy.

It dodged easily, but the four or five behind it were crushed into gold dust.

"Well that's too bad, now for some fun. Let's see if your father blessed you like he has other, let us see if you can survive the walk of fire."

It grabbed a handful of molten metal from a forge station and flung it at me, I blocked with my axe, but the shots were coming from all sides. I started swinging my axe like a madman, the armor and axe were slowly melting from all molten celestial bronze flying around.

I was tiring quickly, desperately waiting for Percy's signal to get out of there, but no signal came. I had a chance to escape, but I refuse to leave my friend behind, not now, not ever.

I finally missed a molten shot and I fell with a shriek of pain and I got hit in the face. I could feel my skin melting under the bronze slag.

"Another pointless death, you could have done great things you know young one, you could have been a hero, but you shall die instead, goodbye demigod." The lead thing spat at me and as he prepared to make the final blow, the entire volcano shot up, sending the entire platform flying into the air.

"Atta boy Percy" was all I thought as I flew up and away from the volcano, the last thing I could remember before everything went black was a faint tropical breeze.

 **Hey, I'm still alive and with no intention of stopping, football has finally ended, which sucks because we made it to the state semi-finals then lost, but now I have more time to write. I promise to be better for a while now since I don't have a sport until Lax starts up in the fall.**

 **Quick poll before the next chapter, should Beck get a sick scar from the bronze to the face, or should it get healed? Yeah or nah?**

 **Happy Reading- Centurion Africanus**


	10. Chapter 10-what the volcano held

**I don't own PJO or HOO**

 **Bianca POV**

When I woke up again, I was in a massive forge, in someone's bed, next to Selina who was crying her eyes out. A few questions came to mind.

"Hey Selina, what the Hades is going on?" I asked gently

She just grabbed me in a hug and wailed into my shoulder. I patted her back and waited for her to calm down.

When she finally did, it was a bit of Deja vu

"Hephaestus-sniff- sent Charlie and Percy-sniff- on a job to help us-sniff- and he came in earlier and said the volcano they were in just erupted-sniff- he said no one could have survived it. Percy and my Charlie are dead." She started bawling again.

I comforted her again, but I focused on recent demigod entries into the underworld, it was hard, Nico was much better with his powers over the dead, I worked best with shadows.

"How long ago did Hephaestus say the volcano blew up?" I asked her

"About 3 hours ago, you could feel the vibrations from here." A gruff voice said from the doorway, a tall crippled man who was leaning on a pair of automatons. Lord Hephaestus.

I nodded and searched back for the past 3 hours. I nearly fainted from the effort, but I got one good thing out of it.

"Well, I have good news and bad." I started, Selina looked up hopefully.

"Percy definitely isn't dead, I've done enough underworld digging on him to know that much, but I have no idea about Beck, I don't know what to look for soul wise."

And that sent Selina back to tears.

"Well, I have no idea what to do, so I'll just send you two back to camp. Good luck." Hephaestus waved his hand and both Selina and I appeared back in big house, crashing onto Mr. D's and  
Chiron's pinochle game.

"Well, if you two could move we have a game to finish." Mr. D drawled in his usual bored tone.

"Welcome back girls, does this mean the quest is over?" Chiron asked in a caring tone and Selina went over the edge again.

"I take it you heard about some volcano exploding?" I asked and he gave a grim nod.

"Yes, Mt. St. Helens, Typhoon is stirring, soon he will be free, and this is not good."

"Didn't know that, but Beck and Percy were in the volcano when it went off."

"Correct me if I am wrong, but did you say Percy, like blown up in a robot Percy?" Chiron asked and Mr. D groaned and got up when he noticed we weren't leaving.

"Yes, he is still alive, even after the whole volcano, I didn't feel his soul go to the underworld."

"But you are unsure for Beckendorf." Chiron clarified and I nodded, Selina was still weeping in my arms.

"I will announce your return tonight at dinner. Go get yourselves cleaned up in the infirmary, we will have a camp meeting later to discuss what to do next."

He got up out of his wheelchair and led Selina and I to the infirmary. Selina curled up on one of the beds and passed out. Chiron gave me some nectar, but I turned it down and waited with Selina, my life my sucks sometimes.

Percy POV

I was floating, just floating in the air. REALLY high up, no rhyme or reason to it, just floating. I was perfectly fine, no burns, but getting down would probably hurt, a lot.

I was floating around, gazing down at the ground, the view was nice, almost like I was in space, but still held down by gravity.

When I was looking down, I saw an ancient city, filled with gold and marble much closer up than the rest of the world. Olympus, I was higher than Olympus.

I tried to get down, to fall, screw the pain, but I was stuck, like something was keeping me trapped up here.

"You're never going to get down like that." A cold voice said from behind me.

Standing, or floating in a standing position, was a tall woman, glaring at me.

"Well then can you help me down, I kinda have friends to get back to." I tried nicely

"Well if you were any other demigod, I would let you down, but seeing as you are a child of my husband not with me, I'll have to pass on being nice, I'll settle on leaving you trapped up here." She growled at me and I gulped nervously.

"Well, I didn't make that choice for him, whoever he is, so can I go and you can go be mad at him instead of me or something."

"I will soon, you freed the guard, he will be free soon, and then I will let you go. Until then though, have fun watching your world from one of the best views ever."

And with that, she vanished. Leaving me trapped up here. FML.

I just kept floating around, trying to figure out who my dad was, one of my favorite past times.

What I knew

He was albino like me, unless he was changing his appearance.

He had a wife who was ticked at both of us.

His power had something to do with sunlight.

His wife, my step-mom, had me trapped in the upper atmosphere of the planet.

He could be Helios, or Zeus maybe a primordial, but I couldn't remember any of their names at the moment.

I just stayed there, floating, cursing my stupid father. All he had done was screw me over. My mom was only with Gabe to cover my scent, no help from him there, he convinced me to stay in the flipping junking yard instead of go back to my friends, that apparently blew up in my face too.

And now his jealous wife was keeping me trapped away from my friends, and he was trapped somewhere, probably one of those prisons Typhoon was guarding, who was now on a rampage because whoever my dad was trapped with, or maybe my dad himself, cast some sort of spell on him.

And so I continue to float, weightless and purposeless.

 **Nico POV**

After I escaped the ranch and slipped back into the labyrinth, I started wandering again. As I was going, I felt the ground shake and the tunnel behind me start to collapse. I sprinted forward and as soon as I saw one of the ladders that took me out of the labyrinth, I shadow traveled my way there and made my way up faster than a spider monkey on a sugar high.

When I was out, I was in a cave. I made my way out of the cave and saw a force of nature at work. A volcano, I think Mt. St. Helens, was erupting. As it erupted, I saw four small dots go flying out of the top. One flew out into the ocean, another went up and never came down. The last two were flying directly at me.

I lept back into the cave and was almost to the back when the two things crashed into the cave entrance. They plowed through the ground and stopped a ways in front of me.

They were two large boxes, the watertight ones from camping trips. One was a pitch black obsidian, smooth and glassy, a yellow/white energy was leaking out of the cracks. The other was made of marble, a liquid shadow was leaking out, pooling on the ground.

Whatever was in each box seemed to be trying to fight each other. The light energy would shine on the marble box, sealing cracks as fast as they could open, the liquid darkness was doing the same thing to the other.

I slowly made my way up to them, trying to feel the energy within each one, it was an ability I had picked up from a dream I had.

The box leaking light felt a little bit familiar, but it was a harsh cold light, I pulled back before it hurt me. The other box had energy almost exactly like my own, just on a much greater scale. I delved deeper, looking for the source.

I was so focused I didn't notice one of the liquid shadows coming up and hitting me straight in the chest.

It felt like I had been injected with hundreds of energy drinks. Images flashed through my head.

The first was of a baby Bianca, she was playing with a man and a woman who looked just like her, Hades and our mother. When Hades left, our mother went into another room, where a different man was waiting, he had skin and hair black as night, his eyes were a deep purple swirled with black. My mother went up him and kissed him full on the mouth.

While I can't say that wasn't a shocker, the image faded out to show a bigger surprise.

The next was of the dark skinned man next to my mother in an old fashioned hospital, my mother was holding a baby, me, except I had deep tan skin instead of the olive color I have now, my eyes also looked exactly like the mans. When there was a knock at the door, the man waved his hand and my skin color and eyes changed into what I saw every day. Then the man vanished just as Hades and an older Bianca walked in.

The image changed again. This time, Bianca and I were playing together while Hades and our mother argued. When Hades left, my mother took Bianca and I out into the streets. While we were walking to our car, a man in a business suit walked up to my mother and unleashed a lightning bolt from his hand into her heart. She fell, dead, a charred hole burning through her chest.

He turned on Bianca and I as Hades appeared behind us, but neither got to do anything. Little 8 year old me unleashed a demonic shriek, my skin darkening and my eyes swirling with purple, I made a punching motion to the man, probably a demigod child of Zeus, and the shadows around me reacted. A large clawed hand formed and plunged into the man repeatedly, ripping him limb from limb. Hades and Bianca only watched in horror.

The next scene was Hades carrying Bianca and I into a hotel, once we were inside, he cast some sort of spell on me, a glyph formed over my heart and my looks returned to look more like Bianca. He let us loose in the hotel.

The final scene was of Hades returning to the hotel, he led us outside and splashed us both with a white water, water from the river Lethe, and handed us both off to a woman in a suit, I recognized her as the lawyer who took Bianca and I to Westover Hall.

One final image showed. Inside the made box was the dark skinned man, my father, my real father. He was sending energy wave after energy wave at the other box.

He turned to me, his face full of worry.

"Help me my son, apocalypse is coming and you must find the other descendants, only together can you stop what is coming." With one final wave of his hand, I felt magic around me release. I looked at my hands and saw my skin darkening to a deep tan. I knew my eyes were turning to the purple/black swirl I had seen in the visions. I knew what I had to do. With one final look at my father, battling for his life against something far more powerful than me, I turned back into the maze.

 **Bianca POV**

After a week of pointless debate in camp meetings, we decided to hold a shroud burning ceremony for Beck, Percy had had one already and I knew he was still alive.

At the burning, Selina was a complete disaster, she wanted to be the one to lite his shroud, but she couldn't seem to do it. When she was finally about to do it, a hand reached around her and took the torch.

Turns out Beck decided to crash his own funeral, I couldn't see him directly, but Selina shrieking "CHARLIE!" and jumping on him seemed like proof enough for me.

Chiron herded us back to the big house with the other cabin leaders to talk about the quest. Beck didn't really want to talk about what happened, but he did tell us about how Kronos was having his scythe reformed. He was wearing a hooded sweatshirt and was hiding his face the whole time, Selina kept reaching up and running her hand along the side of his face.

Eventually it was decided that Beck, Selina, and I would head back into the maze and keep looking for Daedalus, if Percy made his way back to camp in the meantime, he would stay back until we got back.

Once we were back in the maze, Selina made Beck show me his new scar. Most of the top left part, including the area around his eye, had been hit with, molten celestial bronze. He had gotten it enchanted so that it molded with his face, and became part of his skin, an unknown property of the metal, but either way, he now had permanent armor on his face.

We made our way through the maze and found our way into a prison. There we met Baries, the depressed hundred faced hundred handed one. We broke him out and escaped from Kampe, the ancient monster jailer, but he just ran off, leaving a very disappointed Beck, apparently he was a master forger back in the day.

Now we were back to wandering through the labyrinth, lost as before.

"Any clue which way to go?" I asked the others, but they had gotten back to sucking face while walking, Selina said it was to make up for all the time Beck missed while healing, but I could tell something besides a new scar had found its way to Beck on his little healing trip.

"Left it is." I muttered to myself, once again wondering where Percy had disappeared to this time, with him being MIA all the time, it was getting harder to see myself with him in the future.

The walls of the labyrinth were becoming more and more modern, looking like the walls of a subway instead of thousands of years old.

"Wrong direction again guys!" I called to the others, turning around to head back to an area with ancient walls, but the same roar that separated us the first time came from behind us, a large bull man rounded the corner and gave another blood curdling roar.

"RUN!" I cried and Selina, Beck and I took off through the corridors at random,

"There!" Selina pointed to a large door, like one on a safe. We sprinted to it and Beck paused in front of a mechanical lock on the door.

"This could take time." He mumbled as he started at it.

"We don't have time!" I cried and the Minotaur turned down the corridor towards us. It bellowed and charged.

"Screw it." Beck growled and punched the keypad as hard as he could. Surprisingly, the door opened a crack. Selina and I pulled the heavy door open and we all hid inside, slamming the door behind us, the Minotaur crashed into the closed door, but it held strong.

"That was too close." Selina sighed as she leaned up against the back of the door. I looked around where we had ended up this time. It looked like an overcrowded auto mechanic's shop. Loose parts of contraptions were thrown everywhere, most everything looked only half done. Blueprints were tacked up on almost every bit of wall space. They ranged from ancient weapons to what looked like laser cannons.

"You guys might want to see this." Beck said from in front of one of the larger blueprints. It was the blueprint of a human body, and a familiar one at that. At the top was a label, Quintus.

"Why does the blue print look like our new sword instructor, and have his name at the top." Selina asked in a quiet tone.

"Well Quintus is Greek for five right, what if Quintus is a fifth body, granting someone the ability to live far beyond their normal life span." Beck in almost a whisper.

"So that would mean…" I trailed off and a voice behind me finished the statement

"That Quintus is Daedalus in a machine, how astute of you, but now that you know, I'm afraid you won't be allowed to leave." A cold mechanical voice came from behind us and everything went black.

 **Almost Winter break, thanks the gods. On a less positive note, my laptop got wrecked, meaning updates might be coming slower, or not at all, until I get a new one, I had to stop this chapter early just to get this in here. As soon as I get a new laptop, I will be posting regularly again, Thanks for understanding, as usual, all reviews welcome**

 **Happy reading –Centurion Africanus**


	11. Chapter 11- time of raze draws near

**I don't own PJO or HOO**

 **Bianca POV**

My vision had to be deceiving me. I looked around, nope, I was actually floating in outer space. So this is either a dream, or Daedalus had tied me to a rocket and sent me into orbit.

I looked down at the Earth again, there was a figure in scorched clothing trying to swim down by the looks of it.

"I told you, you are going nowhere, you are lucky I am only keeping you trapped instead of outright killing you." A cold voice said from above the figure.

Floating on some sort of platform was a 20 foot tall woman in sky blue and yellow robes. She was radiating sunlight like Apollo was at the Olympus council.

"I told you, take that up with my dad, being born wasn't exactly my choice, hell, I'd rather not have been born, there is literally two good friends I know I can count on fully and one of them tried to decapitate me in a giant maze because he couldn't see my face." I recognized the voice instantly.

Growling back at the giant woman was Percy, my Percy. But he definitely wasn't acting like himself. Saying he wishes he was never born, what in my father's name is wrong with him?

"Bah, you are just whining demi-god, life cannot possibly be so bad for you." The goddess scoffed, Percy's face turned an interesting shade of pink.

"NOT POSSIBLY THAT BAD, I'VE BEEN THROUGH HELL." With that he tore his shirt off. I stared, not only at the slowly defining six-pack and muscle he had, but at the scars, hundreds of them. A giant one running from his collar bone to his hip ran along his side.

"Simple battle scars, they show you are a powerful warrior." This sky lady was really starting to piss me off.

Percy just stared at her, and turned around. My breathe caught in my throat. His back had more scars than his chest and arms. And they all framed three large distinct carvings on his back.

Weak, Freak, Bastard.

No wonder when I first met him he was so He had been abused, badly.

"THAT'S NOT ALL, I'VE BEEN FORCED TO WATCH MY MOTHER GO THROUGH THE SAME THING, SHE IS CURRENTLY SITTING IN A COMA WARD IN A HOSPITAL, THE GIRL I LOVE HAS BEEN FORCED TO HOLD THE SKY AND I WAS SO WEEK, I COULDN'T BE THERE TO RESCUE HER. THEN MY LOVING FATHER KEPT ME PRISONER IN A JUNKYARD TO 'LEARN MY POWERS' I COULD HAVE DONE THAT AT THE DEMI-GOD CAMP, WITH MY FRIENDS, BUT NO. SO TELL ME NOW, WHAT ELSE DO I HAVE TO GO THROUGH TO BE HAPPY?"

I could only stare, Percy had been through so much, he had been kept away from us, he didn't choose to stay away. I don't know how I could have thought Percy would ever try and stay away from his friends, I may have only known him for a few months, but I knew he would do anything for those he cared about.

The giant sky lady only stared as Percy yelled at her, his arms beginning to glow with a white light, since when could he do that?

"It seems I have misjudged you, I thought you to be power hungry like the other descendants, apparently I was wrong, and you very well might be the one we have been waiting for."

"What the Tartarus are you going on about now, can I go." He asked tiredly, slipping his shirt on again.

"I think that would be a good idea, especially if you want to make it on time, even now I imagine you will be a tad late, say so long to your spectator as well. Now get ready, it is a long trip down" She said and gestured to me, Percy's jaw just about fell back down to Earth.

"Bianca…" was all he could say before falling back to Earth.

"And you, keep an eye on him, you can see why he would question himself. Build him up again, he needs to be decisive in his actions if we are to be victorious. As for navigating the labyrinth, use this number and say the albino boy sent you." And with that, she flew upwards again, as my vision began to flicker out, I could see her entering an enormous palace floating above the Earth.

When I came to, I was once again tied to a beam. Beck and Selina were tied to ones on either side of me, already debating how to get out of this.

"Bout time you woke up, what gives?" Selina asked from my left.

"Dream message, Percy's crazy stepmother was keeping him trapped in the upper orbit of the atmosphere, she also gave me a way to navigate the labyrinth after she let Percy go."

"That's great." Beck said, "So where's Percy?"

"Currently crashing down from the upper atmosphere." I answered matter-o-factly and both Selina and Beck's jaws dropped.

"And he'll survive that?" Selina asked and Beck shrugged.

"Seeing as he jumped into a volcano and blew it up and survived, the heat won't be a problem for him, I'm more concerned with where he'll land."

"Well first things first, how do we get out of these chains." I got them back on track.

"If I could get some tinfoil, I could twist it into a lock pick, Selina could use that to pick the lock." Beck told me and I looked around the room quickly. I saw some tinfoil wrapped object sitting in the shadow of one of the piles of crap covering the many work benches in the room.

"Great, so how do I get it?" Beck asked.

"Just gimme a sec, I'll try something I've been working on." I told him and closed my eyes, focusing on the shadows around the tinfoil wrapped object. I felt a light tug in my gut I pulled as hard as I could. There was a faint pop sound and I felt something next to my leg.

When I opened my eyes, the tinfoil rectangle was sitting next to me. I quickly kicked it over to Beck, whose face became a pleasantly surprised smile.

"How in Hades…" he started before I glared at him.

"Right, don't use your dad's name like that, sorry, slip of the tongue." He muttered and quickly unwrapped the tinfoil, and out plopped an old moldy disgusting sandwich.

"Oh gods." He muttered as he wiggled his nose under his shirt, I could see his eyes tearing up. Then the smell his me too, it was awful.

"Holy Hera, couldn't this guy remember to throw away his lunch." Selina gagged as she also tucked her nose under her shirt. I quickly made a note to tell my dad to use this scent for punishment in the fields.

"Well, here's the pick." Beck slid a tinfoil object across to me and I kicked it over to Selina

"Do your thing girl." I told her as she started fiddling with the pick with one hand and her teeth.

"Almost…got it." She said triumphantly. She shrugged her chain off and ran over to Beck and got him out much quicker.

"Thanks the gods, I thought the smell was going to kill me." He groaned in relief and Selina got me out too.

"Great, let's get out of here before Daedalus gets back." I said and we sprinted back into the maze.

We quickly found a ladder and took it up. We popped up in the heart of some random city. We wandered for a bit until we found an old heavily graffitied pay phone. Beck gave me some loose change and I called the number on the paper that had appeared in my pocket after my dream.

"Hello, Racheal Elizabeth Dare speaking." Came the curt voice from the other side.

"Hello, my friend told me to call this number to get help, he's the albino guy." I crossed my fingers that whoever this Racheal was they would help.

"Oh you mean Percy, sure, where are you now?" she asked in a much friendlier tone.

"Uh, by some café on Main Street, I think in New York City." I gave my best guess

"Oh, I know where you are, go into the café and I'll be there shortly, what do you look like?"

Beck grabbed the phone and answered for me. "Just look for the three people in a booth, one of whom has a large metallic scar on his face." He said in his best intimidating voice, it didn't even faze the girl.

"Cool, we'll be matching then, see you in like 5 minutes." And with that, she hung up.

"Well that was unexpected." Selina commented as we made our way into the café, we each got a coffee and waited with Beck facing the door, all of us were tense.

I saw who we were looking for before they even walked in. A girl in complete bronze metallic clothing and paint on her hair and skin made her look like a walking robot.

She saw us and quickly came over, staring at Beck's face.

"I take it you're Racheal?" I asked and I held out my hand."

"Yup, and you all are?" she asked and we introduced ourselves.

"So, why were we sent to you?" Selina cut right to the chase, but Racheal just gave her a blank look.

"I only met Percy once, he said I was some sort of mortal who could see through the mist, so basically I wasn't crazy for seeing monsters and people with weapons wandering around.

"Well we were sent here being told you could get us through, you know, the magic one from myth." Beck, and I got an idea.

"Maybe that's it, she can see through the mist, so maybe she can see through the illusions the labyrinth puts up." I said and Selina and Beck's faces lite up.

"That's it, Bianca, you're a genius." Selina beamed at me, but Racheal gave a time-out sign.

"So let me get this straight, Percy told you guys I to go to me, knowing I could lead through a maze from ancient times that should be in Greece and long destroyed, am I right so far?"

"Well, Percy is currently falling from upper orbit after his step-mother abducted him and held him up there for like a week, she then apologized after a few things were cleared up and she freed him, letting him plummet back to Earth and told me to call a number Percy had gotten for help, which turned out to be you." I clarified, but Racheal just looked confused.

"So Percy is probably burning up in the atmosphere and a crazy lady told me to call you when?"

"I was dreaming, and Percy isn't dead, at least not yet, I'd know." I told her, feeling proud of my recent accomplishment.

"And how would you know?" Racheal challenged me.

"I am a daughter of Hades, I told the judges of the underworld if an albino demigod came through to tell me."

"Well, that creepy fact aside, how could he be alive?" she continued questioning. Beck answered this time

"If the two of us could survive being thrown out Mt. Saint Helens when he blew it up, he can survive falling a few thousand feet, not to mention what he did to Talos."

"You know what, I'm just not going to question it, I'll lead you on your quest thing, just let me change real quick." And with that, Racheal got up from her seat, grabbed her bag, and marched to the bathroom.

"Well, she certainly is spirited." Selina commented and I only nodded in agreement, I was busy wondering how Percy met her, I'd have to ask him if I ever got to be around him for an extended period of time. Damn all these strange kidnappings he kept having.

"Ok, let's go find our way through an ancient maze that supposedly houses all kinds of fun evil dudes." Racheal's cheery voice reached us. She had pale skin and bright red hair, kinda a Celtic look.

"First we have to find an entrance to the labyrinth, we know where one is, but it would take forever to get there, plus I'm pretty sure you won't be allowed there." I told her and she made a face.

"Whatever, just tell me what to look for, I'll keep an eye out for it."

"Just a glowing blue triangle mark, it could appear anywhere though, which is the problem." Beck answered her.

"I think I know where one is, just follow me." Racheal said and she made her way out of the coffee shop.

We all followed her as she made her way to a large planetarium. I recognized it as the place Percy told me he once worked at. Racheal showed a guard guy something on her phone and he let us through, no glancing twice at any of our weapons.

"Right down here." Racheal called from next to a pile of boxes with a model of the sun on top of them. She was standing next to a trapdoor that looked like it had only been used a few times in the past few years.

When I placed my hand on it, it glowed blue and swung open. "And down we go again." I said as I plunged into the darkness.

Racheal led us through the maze quickly, at least, faster and with more purpose than we had been going before. She insisted that there was a glowing blue path along the ground, but if there was, only she could see it.

The distinct lack of monsters was worrying me, it meant either they were dead, or they were with the Titans. Hopefully the former.

Racheal stopped at a cross roads. "The path on the left has a brighter blue color, but I can feel a kind of dark evil radiating from there, like a cold endless shadow. The one on the right will also lead us the right way, but it looks fainter, like taking the long way around. Your pick guys." She turned to us and I considered the two paths.

"The safe one, lets avoid a fight if we can." Selina chimed in

"Go to the left, we can take whatever it is, we need to hurry to beat the Titans." Beck said and nodded his head to the path on the left.

The choice was down to me, for an instant, I could almost see a light shining from the safe path, it was warming and comforting, like Percy. A deep purple glow from the other, it was familiar, but the sensation was just out of my grasp. I couldn't think straight, which was the right option.

"Choose…" a soft voice whispered in my ear, I swear I could see a two faced man tossing a silver key from one man to another.

"The safe path, now come on, we gotta hurry." I told them and had Racheal lead us down the path on right. I hope my choice was the right one.

 **Nico POV**

After my meeting with my REAL father, my whole view on life changed. The Olympians had trapped my father, locked him a prison with his arch nemesis, held down by one of the most formidable beings in all of existence.

He came to me in dreams almost every night, he told me the truth of Olympus, how they were dark and hateful. I needed to help bring them down, only then could I be free to hunt for a way to free him. He told me to search for those before me, but I needed help. Good thing I know where to find a guy who knows **everything** about the past.

The time had come for me to join Kronos.

I would help him rise and tear down Olympus, and in return, he would identify those I was searching for. And I would hunt them, and get what I needed.

My father led me straight to Mount Othrys. I met several monsters who welcomed me with open arms. I would be the one to awake the time lord.

They showed me to the throne room, where 5 thrones stood proud and tall, radiating an ancient uncontrollable power. It was invigorating. In the center of the room, a golden coffin lay in front of the largest throne. The throne of Kronos.

I kneeled before the coffin and felt a tremendous flow of power. A presence entered my head. In my mind, a golden man stood, he had short army cut hair and jagged scars running all over his body, like he had been hacked apart and then quickly sewn back together. He was missing a piece of his chest, right where his heart should be. I looked to my hand, there it was, like the last puzzle piece, waiting to complete the puzzle.

"Lord Kronos." I bowed before him and only stood when he gave a soft chuckle.

"Most join my cause for petty revenge, for their own plights in life, others seek power and control over others. You, Nico Valentino DiAngelo, are different, you have a deep hatred for the gods, so tell me, what do you seek in return for your aid in my rise."

"I seek the downfall of the gods to free my father, he had been imprisoned beneath Typhoon, if I help you, I implore you assist me in locating what is necessary throughout time to free him." I answered as humbly as I could, I knew full well he could smite me where I stood, despite not having risen yet.

If I was looking at him instead of going into another bow, I would have seen the color drain from his face, his eyes filled with fear, and also greed.

"Upon my complete rise, I swear on the river Styx to deliver to you a list of what you seek." He said, color returning to his face.

"Then I swear my allegiance to you Lord Kronos, from now until the fall of Olympus." And with that, I plunged the piece in my hand into the hole in his chest.

My eyes snapped open. The ground was rumbling and the room was flashing in a golden light. A hand punched through the stone top of the coffin, then another followed. The entire top was then thrown off the coffin and out from it rose a tall strong looking Asian boy with an eye patch. When he opened his good eye though, it shown a liquid gold, the whole eye was gold, not just the iris, but everything.

"MY RISE HAS COME AT LAST!" Kronos bellowed through his host. He held his left hand out and a group of telekhines scurried forward holding his scythe in all its hateful glory, I could feel the evil radiating off it.

"THE DOWNFALL OF THE GODS HAS BEGUN AT LAST SEND FORTH MENOETIUS AND THE ARMY TO THE DEMIGOD CAMP, AND CHAIN THIS BOY, USE HIM AS TRIBUTE FOR ANATEUS!" before I could register what he had said, a strong pair of hands grabbed me and lifted me clean off the ground.

"We had a deal Kronos!" I spat at him and he turned to me and gave a dark chuckle.

"We agreed you would serve me until the fall of Olympus and that I would assist you upon my full rise. As you can see, I have not truly risen yet, and I see it best fit for you to serve me as a tribute. Your father made a mistake not telling you who he is, both of your blindness was your downfall. Good bye shade spawn." Kronos growled at me as heavy chains were wrapped tightly around me.

I felt the strong figure carry me to a cart that was being lowered into the labyrinth.

"Lord Menoetius." Several empousi bowed to the one carrying me, another slimy Titan, just perfect.

"Load this one to the lead cart, I shall use the string to lead us to the arena. He shall fight for our pass, and from there, we destroy the half-bloods." Menoetius gave a mighty war cry and the monster reinforcement's bellowed along-side him.

I hung my head in shame as I was towed through the labyrinth by hellhounds pulling the war cart. Perses was across from me in the cart he kept giving me a funny look, like he was both scared and excited at the same time.

"Listen here shade spawn, when we get to the arena, we will turn you over to Anateus and his gladiators. You will do as he says until we come to retrieve you, or until you die. Am I clear." He growled at me, but I just spat at his feet.

"Good enough." He grumbled. The cart came rolling out of a tunnel and I was carried up and out of the labyrinth. I saw Menoetius shaking hands with a large tubby sumo guy. I was led to the back of a long line of monsters, most were fairly weak, such as Cyclopes and empousi, but there were a few bigger ones, like a drakon and a hydra. The only other human was a tall blue skinned woman, she looked confused though, like she had showed up at the wrong party.

We were outside some sort of arena on top of a tall mountain, maybe somewhere in the Rockies. The air was cold and everything further down the mountain was snowcapped.

Menoetius had walked back to the Labyrinth and the sumo guy and two armored dracaena ling us up, making sure I was next to the blue skinned lady.

"Welcome tributes." The sumo guy shouted, I could smell his terrible breath from way at the end of the line. "You have all been given to me as a gift, so here are my rules, only kill when I give the order, do everything I say at all times, if I say fight another match even if your leg is broken, you will do so. If I saw fight with swords, you fight with swords, axes if I say axes, spoons if I say so. But rule number one, there is only one way out, and that's through me." He finished with a malicious chuckle.

He turned back to the colosseum and gave a clap of his hands. The large gate opened to reveal hundreds of monsters cheering in large stands, that wasn't the disturbing part though. The entire arena floor, the walls, floor, and throne in the top box, were all made of skulls, human and monster alike.

"And here lies the remains of every man, monster and deity to try." He finished with a loud laugh that made my bones shudder. Still wrapped in chains, I was forced into my new home, my worst nightmare for years to come.

 **Bianca POV**

Selina was the first to recognize the walls. They were modernizing again, looking like a filthy subway tunnel instead of an ancient maze.

"The light leads to here." Racheal stopped in front of a large chunk of wall Beck stared at it for a second before pressing on some of the tiles. A small box popped out of another chunk part of the wall, closer to Racheal.

"It's an optical sensor." Beck said when he saw it. He tried to get into the wiring, but it was sealed tight. I tried to bash it with my mace, but it held strong.

"Let me try something." Beck put his scarred eye in front of the scanner it scanned the metal and gave a soft ding. A hidden door opened with a hiss from hydraulic pumps.

"Told you the scar could be helpful." Selina told him sweetly before giving him a peck.

"Keep your guard up guys, don't let him get the jump on us a second time." I told them and they drew their weapons, Racheal even pulled a blue hairbrush out of her pocket. Turns out, it was basically useless. Daedalus/Quintus was sitting in a heap on the floor, oil and blood leaking out of various wounds, both his arms had been viciously hacked off and he had a sword driven through his leg pinning him to the ground.

"What the fuck happened in here." Racheal asked loudly. Daedalus looked up slowly, his neck creaking with the movement. His eyes lightened upon seeing us.

"I knew you would find your way back, but you found a way through the labyrinth, why have you returned?"

"First off, still ticked about the whole knock you out chain you to pillars thing, second, seriously, what the fuck happened to you, lastly, we need Ariadne's string, so the Titans can't get it to attack camp." I told him in a bitter tone.

"I do apologize, I had a lapse of judgement, the chaining was so you didn't roll into any of my inventions while you were unconscious, and the keys were within reach for when you woke up."

"Well, we got out, so can you tell us where the string is." Selina cut him off, obviously pissed we had to go through the whole sandwich ordeal for nothing.

"That is why I am in such a sorry state. Menoetius, Titan of ghosts, came here just after you escaped, I fought him as long as I could, but my soul was weak, he tore it right out of me and released it into the labyrinth itself. It would take the combined might of the gods to destroy my maze now. He took the string and left me to die. It was my final stand." Daedalus said, his voice trailing off at the end, his eyes dulling. The machinery that was keeping the ancient inventor alive finally gave way, and Daedalus found peace at last.

"Shouldn't we be running, Chiron said that Daedalus was the only thing keeping the labyrinth standing, shouldn't it start collapsing?" Selina asked worriedly, but I shook my head, processing what Daedalus said with his final breath.

"You heard what he said, his life force was keeping the maze going. This titan, Menoetius, took his life force and released it to the maze itself. He was living on pure will power when we found him."

"He also said it was his final stand, remember the prophecy, a child of Athena's final stand that was Daedalus." Beck piped in

"Right, and he said Menoetius was Titan of ghosts, he might call himself the ghost king. Daedalus was also the one to feel his wrath." Selina added.

"Unless he has more wrath to give." I finished on a dreary tone.

"Let's worry about this prophecy later, for now, let's find a way to get out of here, this place gives me the hibijebes." Racheal said heading for the door out.

"I have a better Idea." I stopped her, "I think I can shadow travel the four of us to camp, Rachel can head back to New York City from there." Beck and Selina nodded, but Racheal looked worried

"Where exactly is this camp, and what do you mean 'think' you can get us there." She asked worriedly.

After assuring her that camp was on Long Island and she could find her way to New York easily, I huddled everyone around me and focused on the shadows in this room, and when I felt them reaching for us, I focused on the shadow that was cast by the Big House Porch. I felt a searingly hot tug in my gut and I felt myself being pulled through space in a cold vacuum. I could tell the other didn't like it, but it felt like a super-fast roller coaster.

We landed with a thud on the porch and I gave a victorious smile, before passing out in a heap.

 **One chapter left in BOTL, the big battle scene, then onto between book stuff and TLO. Quick explanation of Beck's scar for those with questions, roughly the top left quarter of his face, including his eye itself, was covered in a thin coat of molten celestial bronze. He then landed in the water on the edge of Calypso's island which super cooled it so it wouldn't come off. Finally, Calypso enchanted it, unlocking a hidden potential of the metal so it molded to his face and he could see normally, but it still was solid, like face armor grafted to his face.**

 **Merry Christmas, or happy which ever holiday you partake in, I'll have more chapters up soon.**

 **Happy Reading- Centurion Africanus**


	12. Chapter 12- time of raze

**I don't own PJO or HOO**

 **Bianca POV**

When I came too, campers were hustling left and right, all in various states of armament. Clarisse was leading most of the Ares and Athena campers into the forest, towards the entrance of the labyrinth.

Beck was leading the Hephaestus campers there too, all crying most of the Greek fire the camp had.

The pattern was the same, cabin leaders leading their campers into the forest, preparing for an attack, we made it in time.

"Good to see you up my girl." Chiron trotted up to my bedside. He was in leather archer's armor and had a massive bow across his back, not like the one he would usually use.

"I'm just glad we got here before the attack started." I told him as he handed me some ambrosia, but I turned it away

"Others will need it more than me soon." I told him and he gave a grim nod.

"If what the others said is true and a Titan is leading the assault, then we will need every advantage we can get.

"Did you say advantage?" a voice asked from behind us, leaning against the door way was Thalia, closely followed by Zoe and the other Hunters.

"You have no idea how happy I am to see you Thals." I greeted her with a hug which she happily returned.

"Lady Artemis ordered us to come, I can now see why." Zoe said in her usual cold voice.

"We need to prepare, there's a massive army going to come through the labyrinth." I told them and Zoe nodded.

"To the fist ladies, let's show these pathetic campers how to kill some monsters!" Zoe gave a war cry and led the hunters into the forest after the campers.

"Well, I'll see you out the Bi." Thalia said with a smirk and sprinted off after them.

"The hunters will make a major difference, but I'm not sure it will be enough." Chiron said, looking weary, reminding me of how old he really is.

"No time for talk like Chiron, these campers need their teacher." I told him with a sly smile, which he returned.

"They will also need a leader, Bianca. Lead them, show them why you deserve their trust and respect."

"I can try my best Chiron." I told him as I made way to the future battle field.

**several hours later**

Nervous couldn't even begin to describe how I felt. Beck had made the entire clearing around Zeus's fist a mine field of nasty traps, including a molten celestial bronze mine right in front of the entrance, wonder where he got that idea from. Clarisse had the Ares, Athena, and a few others in a shield ring around the clearing with the Demeter and satyrs behind them for nature magic backup.

Anyone with a shot was in the trees, each with spare quivers. The younger campers all had little weapons, but they also were the nectar and ambrosia runners. It almost broke my heart to see them with such serious faces, no seven year old should have to fight a war.

Darren and I were the only ones in the clearing itself. As much as I hate to say it, he was second best to only me in combat and we were both children of the big 3, so we were the leaders.

"Scared?" I asked him, glancing over at him, he was sweating up a storm and was paler than usual.

"N-no." he stuttered out.

"Well, you're not normal then, because I'm terrified." I told him in a strong voice and he gave me a funny look.

"You don't get it do you?" I asked, but he just stared at me dumbly. "Being strong isn't not being afraid, it's being terrified and still fighting on, inspiring others no matter how much you fear what is to come." I told him, I don't really know where the words came from, but It felt like the thing to say. He was about to respond, when the ground started shaking, it was time.

The first monsters out of the labyrinth were big ugly giants, kinda looked like Bigfoot. They poured out of the tunnel and right into the first trap. The spray of molten bronze sent them straight to the pit. But the monsters kept coming. The traps held them at bay at first, none making it to the shield walls, but we were almost out of traps.

"Archer's" Zoe called from a tree and a storm of arrows, both from the campers and hunters came arcing through the sky, slaughtering the monsters in waves.

But even that wasn't enough. A loud shriek rand from inside the tunnel and Kampe burst forth, drawing enough of the archer's fire to let a fait sum of monsters reach Darren and I. I let out a deep breath and let my body fall into auto pilot, using my spiked mace in one arm to crush through any defenses the monsters put forth, and using a knife I got off Thalia in the other to slit their throat.

Darren was fighting like a whirlwind. He was using two short swords and was hacking through the monsters with a proficiency and prowess I had never seen from him before.

The monsters eventually hit the shield wall and all Hades broke loose. Some area stayed strong and held the line, others fell apart. Any and all battle strategy went out the window. Now was the time to fight for our lives.

I hacked and slashed my way through wave after wave, my arms collecting their fair share of nicks and cuts from slightly mistimed redirects and stray arrows. Campers were slowly falling back, counting on archers and Demeter kids to cover our retreat. The only other ones still dealing heavy damage to the monsters were me, Clarisse, and Darren. The three of us had each taken a chunk of the field and were taking on the brunt of the monsters.

Kampe was flying over head with a massive longbow, picking out where the hunters were and trying to kill them with her spear sized arrows, but they were too quick, dodging away from tree to tree.

We needed some major help, everything was going to Hades.

.

.

.

That's it. I knew I was probably going to end up knocking myself out, but I killed that last monster next to me with a hard swing of my mace and focused my power. I felt around underground for any skeletons, animal and person. I poured as much of my power into them, temporarily fueling them.

It worked. I fell back onto my but, just about completely out of energy, but chaos had ensues among the monsters ranks. Several hundred human skeletons from all eras were climbing out of the earth, undead deer galloped out of the ground, swinging their antlers and plowing through the monsters without feeling their attempts to stop it.

Even skeletal squirrels were helping, scurrying onto the monsters arms and biting their hands with weapons to disarm them.

I slowly got up, leaning heavily on my mace, panting. That stunt took almost everything out of me, but it was worth it, the amount of panic going through the monsters ranks was catastrophic. I slowly began to make my way back to the tree line, eating some ambrosia to replenish my energy and heal my wounds.

I was almost back to the tree line when I heard a booming laugh from Zeus's fist. I turned and saw not one, but two large imposing figures, each with a sword as long as I was tall.

They were much larger than normal humans and let off huge auras of death and destruction. The two of them could have been twins except for one had long slicked back silver hair and the other had red hair in a military buzz.

"The mortals are trying to fight us brother, it is amusing is it not." The silver haired one laughed, stopping all combat on the field, monsters, dead and demigod alike turned to face the new threat.

"Yes it is, look Menoetius, they even attempt to use your own power against you." The red haired one laughed and pointed to one of the skeletons. So the silver haired one was Menoetius, this could end poorly for me.

"Reanimation of the spirit in an already fallen body, most impressive daughter of Hades, not many have that ability." Menoetius laughed, picking me out of the crowd and staring me down. "But I am stronger." He finished with a growl and a wave of his hand. A small black orb flew out of all the skeletons I had reanimated and flew into Menoetius's palm. He clenched his fist and the black ball of power shattered in his grasp. I felt the raw undead magic flow through the air, some of it going into me, revitalizing me for the battle to come. The rest flew into him, causing him to glow with a black glow, his eyes glowing an unearthly white.

"I offer this final chance to any demigods to leave the side of the worthless gods. My brother Pallas and I shall grant you safe passage if you swear your allegiance to Lord Kronos, the risen time lord." He proclaimed in a loud voice, like he had been waiting to shout the news to world.

"Go screw yourself dick-face." Clarisse called from my left, raising her spear, bringing a cheer from the campers.

"We'll never join you!" Beck shouted, met with more cheers

"Just run back to Kronos and tell him he'd better just run back to Tartarus before we send him there the hard way!" Darren added to the cheers, he was beat up and bleeding, but he was acting like a normal human instead of an abusive asshole.

"Oh well, more fun for me then." Menoetius gave a fake sigh, before his face twisted into an evil smile. Both he and Pallas leapt forward at me, their swords cleaving in a downwards motion. I knew I wouldn't be fast enough to block them, so I just waited for the pain to come.

It never came, but a high pitched female scream rand through the air. I opened my eyes and almost fainted. Silena had both Titan's swords going through her chest. Her eyes were glazed over and her body was limp.

"Missed." Was all Menoetius had to see. He was going to die, painfully, along with Pallas.

"AGH" Beck gave an anguished scream from behind me and charged the Titans. He managed to get them to jump back, their swords coming out of Silena with a nasty sounding pop. I ran to her body as the fighting around me continued, Beck and Darren engaging the Titan brothers, the archers were holding back Kampe and Clarisse was bravely leading the main force of the campers against the monsters.

I took the entire flask of nectar I had and poured it over Silena's wounds, but I was too late, she was gone.

"Find a godly light." A voice said in a soft mellow tone. I looked around, but there was no one near me. It wasn't the voice of my father or any of the gods, I had heard them all during the solstice meeting.

"Find a godly light, then use your spirit sight to find her soul. Menoetius's presense should be keeping her from moving on. Guide her soul back into her body, and she will live again." The voice said before its presence faded. I had no idea what it meant, but if it brought Silena back, then I'd have to try.

Problem one, what the Tartarus was godly light and then how do I make it.

"My son shall provide." The voice reappeared, then left again quickly, like telling me about his son was an afterthought.

Well, that got me nowhere. I looked around for any bright light source. Nothing coming from the titans, not the two suns, nothing in the woods, wait.

TWO SUNS! I looked back up and was shocked. There was Apollo in his chariot, slowly making his way across the sky, then there was a glowing ball of pure white descending from the sky, brighter than the sun. I looked where it's rays were pointing and saw the souls of everyone who had been killed since Menoetius had showed up, Silena's was near Beck, who was dueling Pallas, trying to get his attention.

I ran forward, sliding under a cyclops before swinging my mace into his ankle, bring him down like a tree as he gave a cry in pain.

I eventually fought my way over to Silena and grabbed her ghostly arm and dragged her back to her body before thrusting her back inside.

Her body gave a shuddering breath as she began to breathe again. I did it.

In the moment I let my guard down in relief, a hellhound bowled over me, head-butting me towards the dueling Titans. Beck was holding strong against Pallas, his rage driving him onwards. Darren was falling to pieces against Menoetius, each of his blows was tearing Darren' shield to pieces. He got a clean swing through on Darren, smashing his ribs with the flat of his sword, sending Darren flying back into a tree, probably breaking his back.

Menoetius turned to hit Beck in the back, but I jumped in and deflected his blow. All the while, the meteor was growing closer and closer.

I dueled Menoetius as best I could, but every time my mace met his sword, I felt my energy drain and my strength lessen.

"You feel it don't you death spawn." Menoetius said in an almost gleeful tone. "My power is that of the spirit, both before and after it has passed. I can capture the souls of those I have killed, and drain the energy of those I fight." He boasted and swung his sword again. I tried to block, but I was too weak and he sent my mace flying.

"Any last words demi-scum." He growled, his sword over my throat. Over his shoulder, I noticed that the meteor was coming closer at a rapid pace. Everyone but Menoetius had stopped their fighting to stare at it as it descended from the sky.

"Yeah, look up." I told him as the meteor was practically on top of him. He turned around and the meteor struck him with the force of a god and the whole world turned white.

 **Percy POV**

Falling was boring. At first I thought I would burn up in the atmosphere, but soon realized all the white energy around me wasn't hurting me, it was giving me power I had never felt the likes of before.

My next worry was what would happen when I hit the ground, but I'll just deal with that when I get closer. Where I would land was another thing I had some worries about, probably wouldn't be a good idea to land in an ocean, or a highly populated area.

My biggest concern was what Bianca would think of me now that she had seen my scars, seen what that monster of a mortal had done to me. I knew she wouldn't like me anymore, no one would like anyone as broken as me.

All I could do now was try and keep her safe and maybe, just maybe she would stay my friend.

I felt a familiar presence enter my mind for the first time since I left the junk yard., Time to give my father a piece of my mind.

"Save your lecturing, you need to focus." My father's voice rang clear in my head.

"You are going too slow, you have access to all the power of my realm for the first and probably only time and you are wasting it. Use your instinct, collect the power around you, it calls to you, its master, now hear it!" his voice was urgent and rushed, so I figured what the hell, might as well try it.

I called to the power around me. I felt nothing.

So I tried harder, still nothing.

Great, now I can't even use any of my supposed 'power' I have. I really am useless, I can't protect my friends, I can't protect my mom, I can't even protect myself. I really am useless. I gave a deep sigh, maybe I'll get lucky and this fall really will kill me.

I was falling

Falling

Falling

"PERCY" I heard the voice and my eyes snapped open, it was my mother's voice.

"Don't give up Percy." Grover this time

"Go Alberto, you can do it!" Nico in his cheery voice, before he found out about being a demigod.

"Common Percy, I've waited for you to come back since you went and got yourself blown up, don't go quittin n me now." Thalia this time.

Every person who I had ever felt a connection with, the people I was closest too, except…

"Believe in yourself Percy." Came Bianca's sweet voice. When I heard her, I knew I could do it. I knew I could unlock whatever my dad was telling me to do. If nothing else, I WILL SURVIVE.

I called to the energy around me once again, I let it fill me, I listened to it. I felt more power than I thought possible surround me. More power than what I felt from both Hades and Apollo combined.

I let it fill me until I felt my skin start to peel away, it was too much. I pushed the power out in front of me, I pushed it together, to form. I thrust my hand out and I felt my fingers wrap around a leather handle.

I held the handle tightly and aimed myself, I could finally see the ground beneath me, and camp half blood was in complete and utter chaos. Kampe was circling overhead, killing hunters and camp archers, I saw Lee's body pierced through the chest, I saw Silena's limp body, although she looked alright, but she wasn't moving. I saw Beck fight toe to toe with what appeared to be a Titan, glad to see he survived Mt. St. Helens, but I don't think he could last much longer against a Titan. I couldn't see Nico anywhere, but I saw Bianca.

She was pinned down by a second titan, his sword right at her throat. I looked at her and she met my eyes and gave a small smile, and waited to die. Not going to happen.

I felt the weapon in my hands grow warm, all the power I had poured into making it rise to the surface, drawing off the newfound energy I possessed. A part of the weapon shot forward and struck straight through Kampe, killing her in a flash of white. It didn't stop there either. It kept going straight through the chest of the Titan that had Bianca pinned down, going completely through his heart and it collided with Zeus's fist, causing a huge explosion that rattled the entire camp.

The light around camp faded, leaving me standing on top of the crumbled remains of Zeus's fist, looking out at the remaining monsters with a burning light in my eyes, no monster would escape what was coming. Not one.

 **Bianca POV**

After the flash of light faded, the first thing I saw was Menoetius with a basketball sized hole going straight through where his heart should be. Above him, Kampe had a similar wound, both were fading to dust. I got up slowly, as did most of the campers. We turned to where the foreign object landed. It was a large cone shaped object, like a lance from medieval era. Except it was hollow and didn't have a handle. It was made of a pure white, almost see through substance I had never seen before. It was like a murky glass, except it was glowing a brilliant white.

It was lodged right where the entrance to the labyrinth had been, blocking it off completely. I had thought this was Percy, but the power emanating from the figure standing on top of the remains of Zeus's fist was above that of all the gods at the solstice meeting put together.

The figure was shadowed out so I couldn't make out their face, but it was obviously a guy, he had longer hair and was holding a handle that matched the lance.

The light finally faded and the man became clear to see. It was Percy.

"Well don't just stand there, kill the damned monsters." He called out before jumping on the nearest cyclops and shoving the handle into the monsters neck. As he pulled it out, I saw it wasn't just a plain handle, but a fencing foil.

Clarisse gave a war cry that shocked the rest of the camp into action. With the monster's reinforcements being completely destroyed when Percy took out the Labyrinth, the fighting went quickly from there, soon it was only Pallas left, but he too fell to Clarisse and Beck.

Eventually, all the monsters were killed and all that was left was to mourn those we had lost, and prepare for what came next.

Percy was running up and down the battle field, using some kind of light magic and sealing the wounds of those who were bleeding out. Painful and would leave gruesome scars, but a lot of campers would rather live with scars than bleed out.

Will led me from the battle field to get myself looked at, I was fine other than my energy was completely drained from my reanimation stunt and whatever life sucking magic Menoetius used.

Percy came trodding in a little while after, carrying both the white metal fencing foil and the cone thing he used to wreck the entrance to the labyrinth.

He gave me a small smile, then collapsed on the bed next to me, sound asleep. I guess falling from the sky took a lot out of a guy.

No one went to see if he was ok, everyone honestly looked terrified of him, backing away and moving patients too other areas of the infirmary. Percy had saved all their asses and this is how they treat him, not on my watch, especially since I knew everything he had been through.

I grabbed some nectar from one of the passing Apollo campers, he went to tell me off, but I killed the words in his throat with a glare.

I put the nectar flash into my pocket and lifted Percy off the cot, he managed to hold onto his weapons in his sleep as I carried him out of the infirmary full of ungrateful idiots.

I was trying to get him to my, our, cabin, but either he put on some weight or whatever weapon he had was seriously heavy, maybe even both.

I was almost there when I tripped, but a steady pair of hands caught me, it was Thalia.

"You were right, he did make it out of that junkyard, it's probably beyond pointless to offer you a place in the hunt now right?" she joked and took Percy from, not even flinching under his weight.

""I'm offended you even had to check." I told her and she gave me a look that I couldn't quite read.

"I may be hunter and hate dudes and all that shite, but Percy has had some messed up stuff happen in his past and he saved my ass out in the desert, you hurt him more than he already has been, I will hunt you down." She threatened, so she knew about his scars too.

"If you're talking about his back, I know, and don't worry, I'd never intentionally hurt him." I assured her as we reached my cabin. I opened the door and let her in. She gave a low whistle as she looked around.

"This place is nice, like an apartment or a dorm room." She said, making her way to the door labeled Percy.

"I know, dad being the god of wealth does come in handy sometimes." I told her as she laid Percy down on his bed, leaving his weapon?s? next to his dresser.

"Guess so, rest up Bi, you did great out there." She told me, gave me a hug and left. I got to work fixing up Percy, rubbing nectar on the few cuts he had. One cut through the shirt he was wearing, so I had to take it off to treat the wound, certainly not because I wanted to see his muscle that wasn't there at Westover again, not that at all.

All the scars were there, just like in my dream. Once he comes too, I am making him tell me both who did this too him and make that person pay.

Once I was done bandaging his worst wounds, the smaller ones having healed themselves from the nectar, I lay him back down and went to leave, but I remembered the face he had when he realized I had seen his scars, the carvings. I couldn't just leave him, knowing him, he'd come to some wild stupid conclusion I didn't like him anymore.

I knew no one would come in here, so no one would see, so I took my armor off and curled into his side. His arm subconsciously wrapped around me and pulled me into his chest. I looked up at his face and saw he looked like he was at peace, more so than I had ever seen him.

I know I shouldn't have, but I couldn't help myself. I leaned forward and kissed him. It was quick, but I felt like my entire body had electricity running through it. His lips were warm and soft, fitting perfectly with mine.

I lay my head back down on his chest and fell into a blissful sleep. And for the first time in a long time, I didn't have a single nightmare.

Well, I don't have any excuses other than life, enough said. A road trip was the reason most of this chapter was written and will probably be responsible for one or two more chapters between my two stories. I plan on revealing more about Percy's new weapon, how everyone reacted to his new power, and what happened to Nico in the next few chapters. I played around with Bianca's powers a bit, instead of summoning the dead straight from Hades's realm, she can create raw spirit power and reanimate and dead being, creating a puppet for her will. Scary, but powerful.

Always happy to hear any and all comments

Happy reading- Centurion Africanus


	13. Chapter 13- the power of the shade

**I don't own PJO or HOO**

 **Percy POV**

When I opened my eyes, the first thing I noticed was how sore I was, not to mention the strange weight on my chest and the stinging pain from a cut on my back.

I went to get up, but the lump on my chest mumbled and shifted a little. That's when I realized it was a head. More specifically, Bianca's head.

I looked around, trying to remember what happened, I remembered crashing into Zeus's fist, killing a bunch of monsters, healing some people, or at least, keeping them from bleeding out, last thing I remembered was crashing on a bed in the infirmary. Looking around now, I wasn't in the infirmary, but my room in the Hades cabin.

Had Bianca carried me all the way here from the infirmary, but why would she do that. She had seen my scars, why would she still want me around, much want to use me scarred chest as a pillow. Speaking of my chest, where in Tartarus is my shirt.

"Morning Perce." Bianca mumbled from my chest, sitting up so I could get up too.

"Hey, what happened yesterday and how did I end up here, last I remember I collapsed in the infirmary, how'd I end up here?" I asked, Bianca gave a little giggle, then explained to me how no one would treat me, so she carried me back here and treated me herself, then collapsed from exhaustion herself.

"Well, I guess I have some explaining to do then." I asked, but she shook her head,

"That can wait, I'm keeping you here for now, there's always to explain later." She told me, so we laid back down and just enjoyed each other's presence, after a little while, I drifted off into a calm peaceful sleep.

 **Nico POV**

Anateus, the arena douche, has some serious problems. He had a raffle of prisoners and situations and would pull two prisoners and one situations out and go with whatever it said. So far I've had to fight a cyclops using a whip, a wild crazed, probably rabid centaur with a rock, and best of all, a hellhound with a butter knife.

I shared a bunk with the blue woman I was brought in with. Turns out she was a Nereid, a daughter of Oceanus, Beroe to be exact. She had been offered by her father as part of a treaty for this war, she had the best fighting abilities out of all her sisters, so she had thought she was going to be a commander, but the male titans didn't like the thought of a woman leading their forces.

They had jumped her when she had first arrived at mount Othrys, then proceeded to pass her around like a prostitute, before dumping her here to rot.

She had gone through just as many fights as I had, both of us being pushed to our limits. As time passed, we became friends.

"Ugh." Beroe groaned, flopping down on her bunk, shaking me from my thoughts.

"Another tough fight." I asked and she groaned again in response.

"How bad was it this time?" I asked and she gave me a side glance before responding.

"Throwing knives blindfolded vs an empousi." She answered and I flinched. Empousi have a killer sense of smell, so she must have some fresh wounds.

"How many of them got you?" I asked, lifting a loose floorboard we used to stash medical supplies in.

"Just one, but I got it handled, Anateus let me have some water after the match, said he was impressed."

"Good, less bandages and nectar we use now means more for us to use later when he makes us do something really awful." And it was true, I had heard stories of how he would make around ten or twenty fighters duel with hydra venom injected in their system, only the last one standing got the cure.

"You're up next, thought you would like the warning." She said, her voice muffled since she was talking through her pillow.

"Any chance you heard what my situation was, or who my opponent is?"

"No on the opponent, but you have to use a spear without it leaving your hand at any point, so disarmament is immediate death, as is throwing your spear."

"Any tips?" I had never used a spear before, so asking a powerful yet frequently lazy immortal was quite helpful.

"Don't forget to use the butt of your spear, if you're fighting another inexperienced spear user, they'll only use the sharp end, that's how you'll know if you need to bend the rules a little and power up." She advised and I gave a relieved nod.

Since getting here, I had found I could use power over any and all forms of darkness, sometimes having to use it to cheat in fights. How else do you think I won a fight using butter knives?

"Thanks, I don't think I'd make it through this without your help." I told her, but she just snorted.

"Of course you couldn't, you're a mortal, and I'm the all-powerful immortal badass." She grunted, and dosed off.

She wasn't much for company, but she was better than nothing. Despite how gruff she could be, she was just in pain, hurt after what her family did to her.

"Shade spawn, get your ass out here." A guard's voice said, banging their weapon on our cell door.

"Shut up, I'm coming." I called back and got up. I gave Beroe a quick salute and was on my way. I followed the guards up into the arena, they stopped me at the gladiator's door and handed me a spear and a helmet, Anateus must be in a good mood today.

I entered the ring and gave Anateus a glare, but he just laughed.

"Time for our main event, the shade spawn, the knight of darkness himself, NICO DIANGELO!'" wow, I'm kinda surprised he actually knows my name.

"And his opponent, one of the terrors of ancient Greece, the Golden Pirate of the Mediterranean, SCIRON!" well, this might not end well. From what I remember Boroe telling me about monsters of ancient Greece, Sciron was a dueling champion, a merciless pirate.

Seeing the figure that came from the other side of the arena, I saw none of that. Sciron was thinner than I thought he would be, his only had on a pair of beaten pirate trousers, along with a golden mask over his whole head. He had a spear that he was holding awkwardly.

"The rules are simple, remove your opponent's helmet and the win is yours." Anateus bellowed, if anything, Sciron looked scared of the duel, but he had to lose, so I could live for my vengeance.

"FIGHT" Anateus bellowed and Sciron charged towards me, keeping his spear lever with my gut.

Sciron moved faster than a normal human, but I could still keep track of him. He tried to stab me, but I dodged to the side and sliced at the strap keeping his helmet on.

He ducked and swept my legs with his foot, knocking me over, but I rolled away as he tried to decapitate me with a hard swing downwards.

He may be a sword fighting legend, but he didn't seem like he was as talented with a spear.

I jumped back into action, focusing on trying to get a major wound on him, but his natural speed was enough to keep him from any major harm, but he got several long cuts along his arms, and I got him with a nasty gash along his ribcage.

Everyone could tell I was on the offensive, I was chipping away at his defenses, shredding his guard without mercy. I made a faint, and he fell for it. I twisted in midair and smashed him along the side of his head with the butt of my spear, Beroe's idea, good application.

"Please, have mercy, my curse." Sciron chocked out, spitting out blood from inside his helmet. I faltered for a second, it wasn't long, but Sciron jumped at the chance.

He did a matrix jump from his back onto his feet, kicking be in the face in the mean-time. My head rang, when did Sciron clone himself three times?

"Young fool. Mercy is for the weak, if you want to survive, you must use every opportunity presented to you, take advantage of every weak point." He spat on my shoe and slashed my arm. It wasn't much, but he got me pissed, and that wasn't something anybody wanted.

"GGAAHH" I gave an infuriated cry and jumped back into action, basing and slashing Sciron until he resembled piece of graph paper.

"You die now pirate, die at the hands of the son of the shade lord." I don't know where the words came from, but they flowed easily from my mouth. I Spartan kicked Sciron one final time and he flew back, dropping his spear at my feet, so I snapped it in two.

"Die." I muttered and waved my hand, using the shadows in the arena to form a ghostly hand and rip his helmet off. I only saw his face for a second before he screamed in pain, his entire body turning into stone.

I stood above the now petrified Sciron and spat on his face. I held up my spear and the audience gave a roar of pleasure, but while I was living the role of a successful gladiator on the outside, I was disgusted on the inside. These monsters really earned their names, and Anateus was the worst of them. And the gods turned a blind eye to wicked activities like this while the Titans endorsed them. Neither of them deserved to rule the cosmos.

They all needed to fall, and I would be the one to do it, even if it killed me.

I was led silently back to my cell, Anateus was waiting there for me. He congratulated me on my victory and was excited to see my future fights.

I went into the cell and began wordlessly bandaging my arm, applying a little nectar to the wound so it would heal faster.

"Who was it?" Beroe asked, shaking me out of my train of thought.

"Someone needs to kill Anateus." Was all I could say, expecting Boroe to shut me down, but once again, she surprised me.

"So what's the plan?" she asked, plopping down next to me a grin on her face.

"To beat him, we need to k now how he fights, how he's stayed in charge of this place for so many years." I told her and she nodded. "I say one of us challenges him to a fight while the other finds a way to get out of this cell to watch the fight. No matter what happens in the first fight, the other will come up with a way to finish him once we know what he can do." I told her and she smirked.

"And being the hero you are, you were going to volunteer the take him on yourself, leaving me to watch in suspense?" she asked, a smile still playing on her face.

"No, I'm going first because I have the greater power set, unless he lets you fight in water, you're limited to just weapon's prowess. When they give me a sword again, I'll win quickly and finish him there and then, or at least challenge him enough you can piece together a way take him out." I told her forcefully

"Well if you insist mr. high and mighty." She said, rolling her eyes. "But if you need your ass pulled out of the fire, don't come crying to me." She grumbled, finishing up on my wound.

"Thanks for that, but are you with me." I asked and she gave me a straight look, her eyes were a deep blue, swirling like the unknown depths of the ocean.

"If you want to make a bid for freedom, I will follow you, but so will many others, both monsters and guards here live in fear of Anateus. He is cruel and sadistic. If we pull this off, we may have more than our freedom." She said it like a warning, but she didn't make much sense.

"Yeah sure, let's get free first then worry about what comes after." I offered her my hand and she shook it with a grin.

"This may be the beginning of a wonderful partnership." She said with her half drunken, half sincere smile.

We waited for weeks. One day I was called forward to fight using a sword. This was my chance. Boroe slipped me what was left of our nectar cache as I went out. I handled the empousi quickly, but before the guards could come collect me, I made my move.

"I've had it. You make us fight down here, for your amusement, giving us impossible situations to fight in, I mean, when is fighting using kitchen ware ever going to make sense. I, Nico DiAngelo, son of the shade lord, challenge you Anateus, son of Poseidon, to a duel for the control of the arena."

"You wish to fight little shade, you wish to be crushed, well, I accept your challenge." He boomed, and jumped down from his throne of skulls.

"What weapon do you wish." He bellowed, cracking his fingers, one by one.

"Your choice fat ass, I got my sword." I held up the sword freshly painted with monster dust.

"I am a master of pankration, ancient Greece wrestling, you will die at my bare hands." He gave a mighty roar and charged, swinging his fists like wrecking balls.

I leapt back and swung my sword, catching him along his knuckles. He gave a howl of pain, but instead of blood, immortal or mortal, his knuckles bled sand.

"Well, that's a first." I commented, eyeing his cut hand.

"Watch little demi-god, watch why I have lived for thousands of years, and have never lost a fight. My father may be Poseidon, but my mother is Gaea, watch as the ground itself rises up to heal me." As he was talking, the dirt rose off the ground, wrapping itself around his hand, when it fell back to the ground, his hand was perfectly healed.

"Well then, this complicates things." I muttered, and jumped back into the fight.

I tried hacking him to pieces using my sword, but no matter how fast I cut him, the ground rose up just as fast to heal him.

I barely managed to escape him most of the time, he was like a tank who couldn't stop or feel pain. Me, not so much. I lost focus for just a second and he caught me with a hard upper cut in the ribcage. I felt just about all of my ribs shatter on impact, maybe even a few pierced my lungs.

I tried to get up, but I was absolutely wracked with pain. I managed to roll over get onto my hands and knees. Anateus was boasting, showing off for the crowd, big mistake. I took the nectar from my pocket and downed the bottle.

I got to my feet shakily. I knew I couldn't take another hit like that or I'd be in two pieces.

"Do you give up yet, you have lasted longer than most, you are the first to be able to stand after taking one of my punches. I shall reward you by allowing you to live under my servitude if you agree to surrender now, if not, I shall have a new skull to dedicate to my father Poseidon." He boasted and I lost it.

I called forth all the shadows in the arena, all the darkness. I let it wash over me, fill me with power. I reached out with it, forming dark shadowed hands. But I didn't stop there, I called to the shadows, I willed them to live to do my bidding. If all these people kept calling me son of the shade god, I might as well be able to call forth some fucking shades.

I opened my eyes and the sight I saw was marvelous. Black entities were flying around Anateus, they ripped at his skin, tore at his flesh, and used his bones as toothpicks. And the Earth did nothing to stop my shades, nothing to heal Anateus.

"Mother, why have you abandoned me." Anateus cried, shrieking in pain as my shades devoured him.

" _You know I will aid you in any battle against any beneath you. You choose to fight your cousin, the son of my brother, and you have lost. I warned you when you opened this arena this day would come, and now you die."_ A cold dark feminine voice, barely above the volume of a whisper rang through the arena. I could only assume this was the voice of Gaea.

She called me the son of her brother. From what I remember from mythomagic, Gaea was one of the original six Primordials. She, along with Tartarus, Ouranos, Erebus, Nyx and Chronos. So that meant my father was either Chronos, Ouranos, Erebus or Tartarus. Easily not Ouranos or Chronos, they have absolutely to do with my power set, so that meant my father was either Erebus or Tartarus.

"Well done." Beroe came up to me, the rest of the arena was frozen as she approached me.

"Did you happen to find any more nectar, or some ambrosia?" I asked and she handed me a slab of ambrosia and a vial of nectar.

"Both from Anateus's personal storage." She informed me.

"Cool." I muttered and took a big bite out of the ambrosia. I felt the energy rush back into me, making me feel good as new. I felt my ribs pulling themselves out of my lungs, and healing themselves.

"So, what do we do now boss? "Boroe asked, a crooked grin on her face.

"We train, I've seen both the forces of Kronos and Olympus, and if we want to win, we need to become stronger." I looked out at the field of shades I had summoned, they were looking at one in the middle, I'm pretty sure it was the one who ate Anateus's heart. It started to twitch, and turn, until in bent over and took a shape.

The shadows twisted and formed a shadowed version of Anateus. "My lord, I have stolen this spirit to serve you." A dark gravelly voice said from the shade Anateus. It was deeper than Anateus's voice was before, and full of untold darkness and hate. It filled me with strength.

"You are a shade, correct?" I asked him and he nodded.

"And devouring the heart of your victim allowed you to consume his power and absorb him?" I asked, again, a solemn nod.

"Then today is your lucky, call forth as many of your brothers and sisters and devour every monster in this arena, leaving no one except myself and my commander, we prepare for war." I said and was met with a surprised look from Beroe and war cries from the shades. Hundreds more poured from the shadows, each one finding a monster and consuming it, leaving me with an army of around a thousand strong of shadowed monsters. I felt my own power rise as each one assumed their new from and bowed before me.

"Beroe, you had asked what I planned to do next, well, does this look like a good enough answer?" I asked, letting my face slide into a true smile for the first time since the whole demigod debacle began.

"Well, I have to say, things sure never will be boring around you boss, that's for sure." She responded with a grin before letting bowing before me herself.

"All hail Nico DiAngelo, lord of the shades, son of Erebus!" she cried out and the call was echoed through the ranks of my new army.

"Well, I guess that answers that." I said to myself, before feeling a dark presence enter my mind.

" _That is does my son, that is does. Welcome, to the world of shadows."_

 **And, two chapters in two days, get all your heart attacks out of the way now, I've just had an unreal amount of free time being stuck at boring relatives house in no where's ville USA. I'll probably get another chapter done for either this story or my other one my late Monday, and maybe one more by the end of the week. All comments welcome, they make writing so much more enjoyable.**

 **Beroe is kinda like a cross between Dionysus and blackjack, with a splash of Thalia for good effect. I'm even going with the boss thing. I took a swing in the dark when writing for her, so hopefully you guys like her.**

 **Happy reading- Centurion Africanus**


	14. Chapter 14- be free, and fly

**I don't own PJO or HOO**

 **Bianca POV**

I woke up again, Percy and I must have dozed off again. I heard a muffled sound coming from outside my cabin, like a riot or something.

I slipped out of Percy's sleeping arms. He drooled when he slept, who woulda guessed.

I made my way out of Percy's room and to the door. The sight at my door wasn't one I expected. There was a black bubble surrounding my cabin, as well as a few campers and around several hundred skeleton warriors, all protecting the cabin. What they were protecting us from became apparent as I looked past the bubble.

Most of the camp was up in arms again, archers shooting arrows, the Ares cabin all had their swords drawn, except Clarisse, who was one of the few campers defending the cabin.

The others were Beck, Silena, Jake, Will, and surprisingly, lord asshat himself, Darren.

"What in my Father's name is going on here?" I yelled out, and all attention turned to me.

"You are harboring a powerful enemy, a threat to the gods, turn him and yourself over to the gods at once." A voice called from the mass of campers.

"The hell is wrong with all of you, Percy isn't a threat, he saved you guys, and how many of you would have bleed out if it weren't for him closing your wounds?" Beck called out, but the words fell on deaf ears.

"He's too powerful, he isn't one of us, he's a freak!" a voice called out, I cringed at that, it seemed no matter what Percy did, those words carved on his back haunted him everywhere.

"He hasn't even been claimed yet, he's probably the son of a Titan." Another voice called.

"There's no way Percy could be a threat, you guys don't remember him he's the weak guy who was here before Artemis was captured." Darren honestly tried to help, but he failed miserably.

"Well, I can see what I'm worth here." I heard a dejected voice from behind me. It was Percy, he had put on some fresh clothing and he looked good as new, but the look on his face told me otherwise. He was broken. All his life he had been pushed away, branded as different, as less than everyone else. And the one place he thought he would be accepted threw him away like old trash after he pulled all their asses out of the fire.

Percy slowly made his way back inside and I followed him without hesitating. He had gone into his room and was packing a bag. His foil had connected with the cone thing and formed a lance. He was going through the closet and drawers, pulling out any clothing and supplies, throwing them roughly into his bag.

"Percy." I tried to come up with words to get him to stop, to stay, but they died in my throat. What reason did he have to stay? Even those who defended him thought little of him.

"Please don't try and stop me Bi, You saw that mess out there, none of them care, you've seen my scars, how broken I really am. All my life I've looked for a place to fit in. I thought this place would be the place to accept me, to not mind one more different person. But I was wrong, no one understands, nobody can ever understand." He said, completely dejected, his eyes didn't hold the sparkle they always held. They were shattered, completely lifeless, like a corpse.

"You think they accept me either." I said in a small voice that got his attention.

"You think they accept me, the daughter of the god of death, one of the most feared gods in existence. The only reason they aren't up in arms to make me leave is because they are scared. If you are leaving, then at least let me go with you. In case you haven't noticed, Nico isn't here, he left, ran away because he felt the same thing you feel now, the same thing feel. Let's go together, let's find him and it'll be just the three of us again, no more hate, no more neglect, just us, a family." I tried tom talk him off the edge, but my words bounced right off him.

"I know you don't want that Bi, you have friends here, they stand outside right now, defending you, you don't want to leave them, so stay, let me go." He begged, the look in his eyes told me his words were empty.

"They defend you too Percy, they realize what you did to help them that you saved them. Hell, Darren is out there right now, the guy who used to bully you, standing up for you, because no matter how twisted he can be at times, he has a sense of honor, he recognizes you saved his ass and he respects that." I was in tears now, Percy couldn't leave again, not again.

"I doesn't matter, none of it matters Bi." His voice was so downtrodden, filled with so much pain, I could feel it.

"It doesn't matter how many people believe in me, not if I can't eve believe in myself. I need to face me my demons Bi, I need to face my own monsters and beat them myself. I need to erase these scars. I need to be free of this pain, I need to fly." I could see in his eyes, nothing I would say was going to change his opinion, he was going to do this, he was going to find a way to grow into himself, to shed the past, to fly. And he was going to do it alone, nothing was going to change that.

"Well, then promise me this, if you succeed, you'll come back, back to camp to protect it, yesterday was proof enough they need you, even if they don't know it yet, promise you'll come back, for me if nothing else." I was in tears and almost didn't hear Percy's answer

"I swear on the river Styx." He said in a hushed tone as he shouldered his backpack. I couldn't take it anymore. I ran forward and hugged him. I let out al the pain, all the hurt, all the misery I had felt since coming to this awful camp. It tore my brother and I apart, severing any close ties we once had. And now it was tearing Percy away from me too.

"I will come back Bianca." Percy whispered into the top of my head. I tilted my head up and looked him in the eyes. The hurt, torn broken look was still there, dominating most of his facial features, but there was something else there too. Buried deep within his pained sorrow filled gaze was a glimmer of hope. Hope he could overcome his past, hope everything would be alright, hope he could be free from the pain, and fly.

I kept staring into his eyes, and him back into mine. As if it was instinct, we both leaned forwards, and for the first time (with both of us conscious of course.) we kissed.

It was nothing like the night before when I kissed him while he slept, this was something entirely new, something better. Our lips moved in sync, like we were kissing for the hundredth time instead of the first.

When it was finally over, he lifted his lance over his shoulder, I was honestly surprised he could carry it, even though I knew it was hollow, he was stronger than anyone ever gave him credit for.

"I'll be back Bianca, You'll see." And with the he was gone. He jumped out the window in the back and fled into the forest, only looking back once, I could see the tears in his eyes as he ran, he didn't want to leave me, but he had to, for both of our sake.

I couldn't take it anymore, I curled up in a corner and cried, I cried and cried.

 **Percy POV**

Leaving Bianca was the hardest thing I've ever had to do, it was more painful than everything Gabe put me through, more painful than anything supernatural, heck, it was more painful than the two put together, but I had to do it. This was a decision I was making completely by myself, not my mysterious dad, not some other quest member, not fat ass Gabe, but me.

If I was going to do this, I needed to start where all the problems began.

My mom always told me she met my father in a special place, a secluded beach. I needed to start there, the literal beginning of my path.

I made my way into NYC, flipping up the hood on my sweatshirt. Early September wasn't very cold, but it was brisk and windy.

I knew the address to where I wanted to go by heart, it was a place my mother would talk about often, even if we never got to go.

She called it Montauk beach. It was in upstate New York. The beach itself was rather large, but the place I was looking for was specific.

It was a little cabin, sheltered away from the rest of the world. It was in a hidden inlet, shrouded in mist, no normal mortal could have found their way here.

The inside of the cabin was covered in dust. Everything looked like it hadn't been touched in years. The cabin wasn't very big, about the size of the Hades cabin back at half-blood. It had a main sitting room, centered near a kitchen.

There was no real table, just a bar window half in the kitchen, half in the main room, with chairs on both sides.

There were three doors leading out of the main room, one led to a small bathroom. The shower looked like it hadn't been used in years, I considered myself lucky mold and mildew wasn't growing anywhere.

The next door led to a bedroom. It had a large queen sized bed and a closet, along with the normal bedroom furniture.

I left the bedroom and faced the final door. My gut was telling me that beyond this door was the reason I had come.

When I entered the next room, my breath caught in my throat. It was a nursery. There was a crib and other things, but what made this room different was the pictures. On every available surface were pictures. Of my mom, years younger, smiling and full of a youthful life I can barely remember her having. In a few pictures, she was joined by a skinny, pale white baby, with sparkling yellow eyes. That could only be me.

Just above the crib though was the picture that caught my attention. My mom was hugging a tall strong man who was holding baby me. He looked almost exactly like he had in my dreams, except he had taken his sunglasses off. I could only see one of his eyes, the other was covered by baby me's little fist, but the eye I saw was glowing, even in the picture. I could feel the power he held, his gaze gave it away.

This was my family, my full real family. I took the picture down from the wall and held onto it. My mom must have known about this picture, she was in it. If I had seen this when I was younger, my whole life might have been different.

I felt a piece of myself heal when I looked at the picture. This was my family, no matter how far apart we were, no matter what had happened to each one of us over time, When 'I saw that picture, I knew leaving, going to find myself was the right thing to do.

I put the picture in my bag, and left the cabin. I sat on the beach until sunset, just looking out at the waves. I thought back to everything I had heard about my father, every little clue I had. My mom would always call him an angel, a gift from the heavens. I was fireproof, scratch that, I was heat proof. I could manipulate light, use the sun to my advantage. Being in darkness made me weak, I went from beating Luke, to getting my ass handed to me as the sun set. I knew my father wasn't a god, probably, the only one who matched my power set was Apollo, but his children weren't like me, and he had told me himself I wasn't family, but he knew something.

I needed to know what he knew. When I told him on the train about my father, he had been worried, panicked even. I decided that was my next step, if I was going to do this, I needed every piece of information, and that meant finding Apollo.

I spent the night at Montauk, then proceeded on my journey. I did a little research and found out the easternmost point in the US was in Maine, to be specific, to was Westover hall. I figured with the school year starting soon, I would just make my way up there and if I was lucky and got there fast enough, I could pass off as a student.

So I walked, and hitchhiked, and hopped illegally onto some buses and trains. I saw a few monsters, but they were no problem. Despite its looks, my lance was rather light, although I couldn't figure out how to get it to detach into a fencing foil again.

I got to Westover a day before classes started. Thankfully the mist cooperated and let get in as a new student.

I went through the motions as the year went on. I was 15 now and it was hard to believe everything that had happened since I was last here. Everything was quiet, I stayed invisible. I hardly knew anybody and even fewer even knew my name.

But I was here for a reason. Every night, I would sneak out, into the forest. I went to the same clearing that Apollo last came too, and light a fire to sacrifice some sausage or whatever food I had collected through the day.

Every time, I asked the same thing. 'Tell me what you know about my father'. Each and every day,, nothing.

Despite Apollo never answering me, my time at Westover wasn't wasted. The constant exercise was working wonders on me. I was growing muscles like no tomorrow, not to mention growing up as well. Bout damn time puberty hit.

That wasn't all. They had a fencing class for older students, I gladly jumped at the chance seeing as my current weapon was a foil, sometimes, still haven't figured out the trick to detaching the two parts of my weapon.

Time passed and it was time for the winter dance. The same dance that this whole disaster started at last year.

I went to the dance for a bit, but only to get some food, the school put out its best food the day of the dance. I stuffed as much as I could in my pockets and went to use the back exit to go to what I had dubbed the sacrifice-to-Apollo-but-he-never-answers field.

"You know, if you get caught stuffing your with cocktail shrimp, people might think you're crazy." A familiar joking voice said from behind me. Lo and behold, there's Apollo, wearing a horrible yellow tux.

"So an audience with the high and mighty Apollo only takes 4 months of sacrificing food, you've lowered your standards then." I'll be honest, I was ticked it had taken this long, but oh well.

"I'll be honest, Zeus has had Artemis and I working double overtime killing monsters so they don't side with the Titans that I only noticed to constant prayers yesterday. You're a cool kid, even if Zeus wants your head on a platter for making him piss himself in a consul meeting."

"Are you for real?" I asked and Apollo pulled out a smartphone and showed me a video. It was of the Olympian consul, watching the battle at the labyrinth, before I had gotten there. Zeus and Hera were completely unmoved, while most of the others looked distraught. Even Mr. D looked pain to see camp under attack.

The iris message they were watching on flashed completely white, even sending light through the iris message, blinding the gods and the camera phone. When the picture came back, the iris message had broken off, and I could see a little yellow dribble coming from Zeus's toga. Camera Apollo pointed it out and Zeus went from embarrasses to raging, then the video ended with him pointing his bolt at the camera.

"HAHAHAHA" I couldn't help myself, I completely cracked up, and Apollo did too. Some people looked at us funny, but who gives a damn about them.

"That is gold Apollo, pure comedic gold." I said between laughs, and he could nod in agreement.

"Back to why you called me here." He straightened up after several minutes of laughing his head off.

"Yeah, when I talked to you last, on the train to save your sister and I described what my father looked like to you, you flipped. I know you know something and I'll do anything to know what."

"Anything is big talk kid, be careful when you use that word, it'll get you into trouble one day." He said, almost in prophecy like way.

"Well, I trust you not to make me do anything too fucking crazy, so lay it on me, what do I gotta do?" I asked and he chuckled.

"I need to see a picture. Whoever the guy is, he has some serious power, hiding you and blocking off my memory. A picture should give me enough to jog my memory." I knew this was fate. Going to that cabin gave me the next step, now this would lead me to the next one.

I pulled the picture I had taken from the cabin and handed it to him. He smile tugged at his lips when he saw it.

"I remember." He said in a soft tone, I could barely hear what he said, but he had my complete attention.

"It was my first day as god of the sun, Helios turned over the chariot to me I was so excited. I went to get in, but a tall albino man with an eyepatch stood between me and the chariot, when asked to move, he only raised an eyebrow at me. I was going to force him to move, but he unleashed a small portion of his aura, and I almost fainted. He was more powerful than all of Olympus together, I was terrified.

He warned me this job was nothing to laugh at, that if I ever joked around with driving the sun, he would take the privilege from me. I took him dead seriously."

I followed the story and could see why Apollo would be a little scared at the prospect of this god being my father.

"But that wasn't all. He handed me this." And he held up a small white wristband. "He said this was a token of the sun, that if I found anyone worthy enough, to give this to them, he never explained what would happen if they were worthy, only what would happen if they weren't."

"And that would be.." I prompted him

"They would spontaneously combust. Helios had one as well. He gave it to his son Phaethon, he died in seconds and the wristband vanished." Well, isn't that cheery.

"So if it's only going to kill me, why bring it up?" I ask and the playful glint returns to his eyes.

"I have a feeling he meant for this to fall to you, I'm not sure what power it has, but it was clearly meant for you, his son." And he handed me the wristband. I was a little nervous at first, but as I looked over it, gold designs and words appeared on it.

There was the golden image of a lance, exactly like the one I had. Next to it were the words Φλέγομαι λάμψη.

"Blazing Luster." I said softly, Apollo looked over my shoulder and gave an approving nod.

"I told you it was meant for you." He said, grinning.

"Thank you lord Apollo, this has been most helpful." I said and he nodded.

"So where are you going next Perce?" he asked as I noticed something else on the wristband.

"Sacramento." I read off the band and Apollo gave me a blank look.

"Any reason?" he asked, and I showed him the new word on the band.

"Ah, well, good luck then. Although I'll warn you now, you need to finish whatever self-searching quest you are doing and be back in NYC on exactly August 16th. Not a day sooner or later, or everything falls apart." He warned me and I shrugged. August was a long ways off, I'd have plenty of time to finish, most likely.

"Sure thing Apollo, thanks for the wrist band of destiny and story." I said, making my way up to the dorms to pack my stuff, dumping the shrimp out of my pockets as I went.

"Good luck." I heard Apollo say in barely a whisper, then I felt his presence vanish.

I looked at the wristband again, reading it over. When I got up to my room, it immediately reacted with my lance, wrapping itself around the handle, like a grip. Then the whole lance began to glow and shrink. I was left with a small glowing red stone. A sun stone. It was a perfectly smooth oval. On one side, it read Sacramento, with a distorted golden image above it. The other side held a picture of my lance. Under it was the same word as before. Φλέγομαι λάμψη. Blazing Luster.

I rubbed the side that had the lance, like it was instinct. The Sunstone gave off a flash of light and I was left holding my lance, but it was different, knowledge flowed into my head on how to use it, different fighting styles, tactics using a lance in combat. I felt there was still more blocked to me, but I still had more journey to go.

The most prominent piece of new information to me was how to get the foil out of the lance. I focused on the foil within, not thinking of it as a separate weapon within the lance, but as another piece of the lance. The lance cone fell to the ground with a loud thud and I was left holding the foil. It was made of the same crystal white material as the lance and it was nearly invisible. I didn't know how sturdy it was, but the knowledge imparted to me told me it didn't matter. The foil wasn't for a direct fight, but instead of flowing through multiple opponents, slicing their defenses away with what looks like no weapon at all.

After toying around with my new knowledge in the weapon for a bit, I finished packing my stuff, started at my lance for a second, wondering how to return it to stone form, when it did so on its own. I put in my pocket and my gut told me that even if I lost it, I could always find it in my pocket.

I packed everything I could carry comfortably, slipped my sun stone into my pocket, and left Westover.

I made the journey west again, although without a magic train, it took a lot longer. I skipped buses and trains, I just walked until I got tired or ran into monsters. Then I stopped and took care of business. It was March by the time I reached Sacramento, granted, I did stop for a week in the junkyard of the gods to see Leo again. He had given up on the Talos project and was building a celestial bronze dragon instead, he was doing a pretty damned good job, he just needed to work out the 'get a several ton dragon to fly' problem.

I stayed in Sacramento for a week before I felt I found what I had come for. Although, I didn't think it'd be another albino wanderer I met while camping out in the basement of the Crest Theatre (real place, thank you google).

"Some storm." I heard from a guy with a trench coat, fedora, and gloves after I slipped through an egress window of an opera house or something.

"Yeah, not normal for around here for sure." I said, giving the guy a once over, the clothing pointed to monsters, but he wasn't threatening like one, I kept my guard up just in case.

"Yeah, that's what the lord of Storm giants will do to an area though, ya know?" his tone was casual, but he knew just as well as I did that Typhoon was causing these storms, monster.

"So, gonna drop the mortal attire and fight me?" I asked as I drew Blazing Luster

"Nah, pretending to be mortal is fun, plus it means I get to be lazy, although, I imagine my 'boss' is going crazy, seeing as I vanished on." His tone was casual and relaxed, but as he finished talking, he glanced up and gave me a crooked grin. One I saw on my own face back before the bullies, or when I was around Bianca.

"Immortal sibling?" I guessed, he grinned and nodded, then took off his hat and coat, laying back on some loose sandbags.

"So, you gonna go jealousy crazy on me and kidnap me like my fantastic stepmother already did, or are we good?" I asked, not lowering my defenses.

"We're good, I'm kinda the black sheep of the family, dad made me in an accidental science experiment, all his other kids are natural kids, so that leaves me as the freak." I finally lowered my guard and put my lance away.

"Good to know, I'm Percy by the way." I went to shake his head, but he just let it hang.

"Call me Ray. And I already know who you are, I gave you a hand last winter, you were getting the crap beat out of you, again, and I finally could lend a hand, although all I did was lift the bock on your powers."

"Wait, you mean when I gave Daren that nasty sunburn, you helped with that?" I asked and he flashed me a smile brighter than Apollo's.

"Not really, but yeah. Good move getting him to smack himself, good to know my sense of humor is somewhere in the gene pool, not just scientifically put into me." He joked, I felt there was a story behind that remark.

"So I have other siblings?" I asked and he shrugged.

"Not many, the 4 elder cloud nymphs, can never remember their names, they're complete air heads, lets see, the original lightning nymph, and one more I can never remember." He drifted off into thought, lost in thought.

"You're the cool one then?" I said with a grin, toying with my sun stone, tossing it from hand to hand, sitting against some sand bags across from Ray.

"Oh for sure, but you got the heroic genes it seems." He said, snatched my sun stone from me hands and gave it an appraising look. "Damn, where in my great uncle's name did you get this?" he asked, rubbing the side with the lance, before flipping it over and frowning. "And why is it incomplete?"

"I made the base lance out of energy crashing from the atmosphere, and then I got a white wristband from Apollo, so there's more I need to find?" I asked as he kept looking over the stone.

"I have a story to tell you Percy." He began, "In the beginning there was Chaos and Order, Chaos created life as he pleased, without rhyme or reason. Order had a different job, she had to organize that life in a way that would keep balance in the world. To do that, she created to weapons of immense power, power that rivaled the creators themselves. They were called simply Purity and Corruption.

Both Chaos and Order decided that these weapons were too powerful for any one person to have, so the dismantled them. But they didn't destroy them completely. In the hands of the right people, and once certain steps were completed in the correct order, then these ancient origin weapons could be formed once again.

Each one had different steps to reform it. Corruption, the blade of darkness, needed many sacrifices and for its intended user to be one of mercilessness and cruelty, but still recognizes where balance is needed.

Purity was the opposite, its chosen wielder would have to be one of flawless heart, forged in the fires of pain and suffering. And instead of sacrifice, they would need to be freely given the things they needed to complete the blade."

As he told me the story, I'm pretty sure my brain shorted out. He was talking about beings was above my pay grade, I mean, weapons of the original universe, that has to be some bad joke.

"What you have here." He continued, "Is the beginning of reforming Purity, the epic blade of light and justice."

"So, dad wants me to remake one of the most powerful weapons in existence?" I asked and Ray gave me a deadpan look.

"I highly doubt that, you would burn up if it even got to half strength. No, he probably wants to help form an early stage of the blade to use, that is the only explanation that makes sense." He explained

"Well, I'll just go along with that then, would you happen to know what the next step I need to do next?" I asked as he fiddled with the sun stone that I suddenly had much more respect for.

"Yeah, the breath of the Sun." he said nonchalantly. Great, I need to find Apollo again and get him to breath on a rock, this should make a good story.

"So I need to find Apollo again, seriously?" I asked, groaning.

"No, the literal sun, you know, the chariot he drives that is incredibly sexy, has a great sense of humor, and really wishes he would stop picking up nymphs and minor goddess and banging them in the backseat." He deadpanned, I could only stare at him blankly. He blew lightly on the stone, then handed me it back.

"That should be good. Good luck kid, last piece of instructions should be on there now." And with that he was gone in a bright flash of light that left me blinking spots out of my eyes for at least a minute.

When I could see clearly again, I gave the stone a new appraisal, not giving any thought to the fact that I just had a conversation with the literal sun, who also happened to be my older brother. The stone was slightly bigger, but it wasn't really noticeable unless you really looked. It was also a lighter shade of red, now bordering a red orange instead of a blood red. The sign of the lance was a deeper, richer gold, and on the flip side, there was a new city written on the back of the stone.

Tampa Bay. Onto Florida I guess.

The trip back east took longer than the one west had. I was racing east against Typhoon, and I wasn't doing so well. I had wasted almost a month for him to move farther north, while I cut south to Florida.

Once again, I just walked, resting when need be. If it weren't for my wonderful defining skin tone, I would probably look like a Mexican person (no racism intended) with all the Texas desert hiking I was doing. The heat never really bothered me though, I just kept myself stocked with plenty of water and everything was fine.

I reached Tampa by mid-June, just before the summer solstice. I had a pretty good guess as to who I was looking for here, it was kinda obvious going off what Ray told me.

The original lightning nymph, another sibling, hopefully one that would like me like Ray.

I tried at a few weather stations, looking for someone who knew what was really going on, all the weather places were going on and on about was the massive storm system _cough Typhoon cough_ that was making its way across the Midwest.

After almost two weeks of hard searching, I decided to give myself a break and used some of the money I had to pick up some scab tickets to a Tampa Bay Lightning hockey game. The seat was horrible, as was the game, the Lightning were getting trashed by some Detroit team.

"Sad isn't it, such a good hockey team with such horrible luck." A woman's voice said from my left. Sitting there was another albino. She had short light blue hair that looked both dyed and natural at the same time, like she only changed the shade of blue. Her eyes were a sharp yellow and crackled with untapped power. Found my sis.

"You better have a good reason for looking for me illegitimate space waster, or I'll fry you where you stand." She threatened, her fingers glowing and sparking. Great, another spiteful family member, thanks dad.

"Sorry for existing, it wasn't my idea." I complained, she glared at me, but she put the Taser fingers away.

"So do you have a reason for searching for me?" she asked, I responded by pulling out my stone, that caught her attention, like eyes bulging jaw dropped kind of attention, she recovered herself rather quickly though.

"So, you have begun to reforge one of the most powerful weapons in all of existence, and that is supposed to make me like you?" she asked, giving me the stink eye.

"It worked with Ray." I tried, but she snorted.

"That numbskull is as responsible as a teenage guy is, he thinks he is all that because he has his own group of gods to lead." She complained

"What group of gods?" I asked and she waved me off.

"Unimportant, what's important is you need my help for your mission, and you need to prove you deserve it." She stared me down, like she was challenging me to accept.

"What do I have to do?" I asked, bracing myself for some horrible job that would most likely kill me.

"Win the game." She said, pointing down at the ice.

"Huh?" was my genius answer.

"My team is losing down there. I'll just body swap you with their captain, use mist to cover you, then you go out there and win the game. If you can do that, I'll help you, if not, well, I can think up some more tasks for you to do." Her grin at the last remark made me really want to win this hockey game.

"Ok, beam me down Scotty." I told her, getting one last crack before she snapped her fingers

Next thing I know, I'm sitting on the bench, in a blue jersey and pads.

" _My boys are down by three with 5 minutes left in the last period. Your job is to win the game anyway you can."_ The voice of my half-sister rang through my head.

"You're up captain." A suited guy, maybe the coach patted my shoulder and next thing I know, my body went into auto pilot and I was flying onto the ice.

I knew the basics of hockey, how not to get penalized and stuff, but other than that, I was pretty useless.

I just played as best I could, trying not to give the puck up, get it to other guys in blue. After a bit, I was back on the bench.

"You gotta lead them, you're the captain, go out there for the next shift and be decisive." The coach guy told me, sending me back out onto the ice.

His words got me thinking. I didn't have to do anything big, score all three goals, I just needed to ignite those around me, inspire them. That gave me an idea.

One of the guys in red had the puck, I slammed into him as hard as I could. It was the other captain so I figured that would get some kind of response out of some player on the other team, it sure as hell did.

A second guy skated up to me, dropping his stick and gloves in the process, he was scowling and glaring at me, here we go.

I dropped my gloves and stick too and grabbed his jersey when he got close enough. We both started beating the crap out of each other's faces, fists crunching faces. Whoever the guy was, he was good.

I gave one strong downwards on his jersey and nailed him with an uppercut in the process. He went down like a bag of stones.

The refs walked us off, the other guy spitting out a tooth. I could feel my nose was broken bleeding, but that didn't matter, both the crowd and the rest of my team were hopping with energy.

While I was in the box, my team scored 3 goals to tie the game, and after everyone, the goal scorer would skate by the penalty box and give a bang on the glass.

By the time I got out of the box, it was in overtime. The coach guy put me back on the ice and I shot off, determined to finish this. I grabbed the puck from one of the guys in red and took off down the ice.

I was streaking towards the net, with a defender close on my ass, I knew I wouldn't get a clean shot off. There was seconds left in OT, I had to do something, not let my effort go to waste.

I saw a crashing second man for my team, unguarded. I knew I could get a pass off to him, I just needed to let the defender get closer to me, this was probably gonna hurt. I stopped like I was going to take a shot, and at the last second before the defender decked me, I passed the puck backwards.

My entire world flew and I crashed into the boards, my entire body hurt, these mortal athletes could hit harder than some monsters.

It was worth it though, I heard the goal siren go off. Mission accomplished.

Next thing I know, I'm in my real body again, groaning in pain as I clutch my freshly broken nose, great.

"Good job, although I would have preferred you were a little less violent with my favorite player." My sister huffed, but she tossed me back the stone.

"You passed though, I hope you learned from it, if you truly wish to be able to use as much of this weapon as possible, you must decisive, quick thinking, ready to inspire, like lighting itself." She said before disappearing, great, I didn't even catch her name, so much for a big happy family.

I made my way back to the streets, looking over the stone closer. It was mostly an orange color, but it had hints of red. The second symbol on the back was a little clearer, I could tell there were two parts to it now.

Underneath the foggy symbol was an address. Not just a plain city this time, but a very exact address, down to the room number.

My mom's room number in the hospital back in NYC. Looks like I'm going home.

It took me considerably less time to get back to NYC. I really hope this was the last step, because it was August 14th when I got into the city. Apollo said I had to be here at exactly August 16th, early is better than late I guess.

I got into the city late and the hospital wasn't accepting visitors that late at night, so I camped out across the street in an alley way.

In the morning, everything was going along normally. Cars honking, taxi drivers yelling at each other, the general hubbub of New York, I'd missed it, despite traveling across most of the US, there was no place like NYC.

I went into the hospital around 10, my mom was just like she was every other time I saw her, unresponsive. Her vitals were strong, but she was still out. Like her mind was still trying to process her body had healed.

I waited for some time, nothing happened, but a little after noon, my mother gave a rattled gasp, then shot bolt upright in her bed, gasping for breath. The machines showed her vital signs were spiking, beeping loudly and flashing red. I called for a doctor, but none came.

When my mom's short seizure ended, she started grilling me on what happened. I told her everything. I showed her the full extent of what Gabe did, told her about Bianca and my time at Westover, about everything that happened since I learned I was a demi-god. I told her why I left, my journey across the States, meeting my brother and sister. She thought Ray was hilarious.

I showed her the stone, she took it and held it.

"Percy." She said, her voice had become weaker as we had talked.

"Percy, I want to tell you I love you, the real you, and from what you've told me, so do others. So go find them, help them, go get your girl, I do want to meet her someday, but you have to go, and so do I. I love you son, be free." And those were the last words my mother ever said to me. She died, with a tear streaming down her face.

I cried. I cried and I begged for her to come back, to not leave me. I didn't even register the fact that no doctor came in, and everything, except the flat lining machines was completely silent.

As I cried, holding my mother's body, Blazing Luster, which she had been holding fell from her grasp into my hands.

I held it and looked at it, it hadn't changed. My mother had died and the stupid rock wouldn't even do whatever it was supposed to.

"You know, she didn't wake up on her own." The voice behind me made my insides flare with anger and pain. Everything, all the loss and pain I'd had to feel, the separation on stupid training missions, only one person was to blame, and I could finally meet him, fist to face.

"Hello dad." I practically spit out, letting my sorrow well up inside me, not even turning to face him.

"The Titans are advancing on New York, they had Morpheus, god of sleep and dreams put every mortal into a cursed sleep. But for those already in a cursed sleep, or coma if you will, it threw them awake without first being spiritually healed. Comas are both mortal and godly injuries. When your mother was forced awake, she still had severe spiritual damage to recover from." His tone was calm and even, but I was full of anger and pain and sorrow, I wouldn't hear him.

"So what, I came here for self healing, to shed my scars. But this, she was my only family. The only person who really understood me." I was crying still, my tears raining down on Blazing Luster, staning it with my tears.

"I'm sure if Ray heard that, he'd be upset, and while she may not like you all to much, Skyler has gotten quite protective of her baby brother."

"Protective, she didn't even tell me her name." I grumbled

"Yes well, she never really has been a people person." He sighed and I finally turned to face him. He was exactly like in my dreams. He stood at a solid 6'3" and was built lean and light, but still with more than enough muscle to deal some serious damage in a fight. His hair was short and spiked up, like skate border before they got helmet hair.

He wore his blue raybands over his eyes I knew were a crystal yellow like mine. His face wasn't impassive like it was before, his face with filled with sorrow and worry.

"So why did the stupid rock send me here then, to feel even worse about myself."

"No, the spirit of Purity sent you here to heal. Think about it, has beating yourself up ever helped you feel better, has belittling yourself ever helped. By becoming smaller, did you escape bullies?"

A solid head shake to that.

"Then you have to go the other way. Become bigger than the bullies, encourage yourself, show why you should be loved. You aren't just going to be accepted, you will be threatened and chased away, but there will always be those running alongside you, and I know you know who they are." I was slowing hearing his words, seeing the truth in them.

"But what about my mother, she'd gone, and there's nothing I can do about that."

"Maybe not right now, but if you become stronger, and can come to terms with the past, and look to the future, there is no telling what you and your friends can accomplish." My outlook was becoming brighter, when I looked at my mother, I didn't see a dead body, I saw a person free from pain.

"She wouldn't want that, she wouldn't want me to bring her back. She'd want me to move on, be happy." My mother was my hero, and now she was gone, so I had to do everything I could to honor her memory.

I have to let go. I took a deep breath, and let it out slowly. I forgave everybody, every bully for every scar, even Gabe. I was better than them and I was going to prove it.

"Now take the stone, and touch it to your mother's tear. That's the next step, the final tear of a pure soul." His voice was gentle, but I listened. I opened my eyes and touched the stone to her final tear. Her one final gift to me.

"Thank you mom, for everything." I said, and I closed her eyes.

When the stone touched the tear, the whole room flashed a harsh bright white. I felt a burn on my back, like I was being branded by an iron as hot as the sun. Then my back exploded in pain, and I passed out.

The last thing I remember was a soft voice, my mother's voice,

"Be free, Son of Aether."

 **Bianca POV**

Camp life had turned from fun summer camp to full war time army camp. Campers went out on missions all the time, sometimes to kill monsters, other times to get equipment stored around the mortal. But never recruitment, it's as if all the remaining children of the gods have vanished, and I have a good idea where too.

All the missions weren't without causalities. Jake Mason would have to wait years before he could walk properly again, or even lift his arms, he was lucky to be alive after meeting the business end of a fully grown dragon, yeah dragon not a drakon. Much worse.

Clarisse had been missing for 4 months, but Ares cabin refused to accept she was gone, so there had been no shroud burning had happened yet.

The biggest blow was Darren. He and Beck went on a mission to finish off the Princess Andromeda, Beck went to set the explosives while Darren caused a diversion. Kronos, now being hosted in Ethan Nakumura's body, was about to kill them both when Darren knocked him over with a wave and managed to protect Beck while he triggered the Greek fire bombs. Darren died a hero, getting Beck home safe for Silena, I had never seen her cry so much.

But with Darren and Clarisse gone and Annabeth long dead, we were leaderless. About three quarters of the camp wouldn't listen to me, Beck was to quiet, and people wrote Silena off as a ditzy Aphrodite girl. Chiron was doing as best he could, but he was only one man, horse, centaur.

But worst of all, I missed Percy. He had been gone for almost a year now, as he had left the day before his birthday the previous year. I had no contact with him, even Iris couldn't track him. My father assured me he wasn't dead, but maybe he missed him somehow.

But I had to stay positive. My mace had been shattered by Menoetius, so my father gave me a set of large throwing knives that could be used as daggers for hand to hand as well.

So I trained. I trained and I trained, using my new found power over reanimation, using my magical throwing knives, using shadows and just general physical fitness.

The battle of the labyrinth had been a wakeup call for the entire camp. They had only heard the stories from quests, not having seen the full power of the enemy against us.

So we all trained, from sun up to sundown, lying in wait for the day when the Titans would strike, that day came when Clarisse returned, and boy, had she been through hell.

 **Well, I hope this 8284 word chapter keeps you guys happy for a little while because I may have to slow immensely, if not stop writing until summer. I'll be writing where ever inspiration comes so just wait and see. I felt this chapter was needed, Percy letting go and becoming more the sarcastic Percy we all know and love. There will probably be another foreshadowing chapter, from Nico's POV, then 2 or 3 about the actual battle for NYC, then jump into the giant war, with my own twists. If anywhere the name Nitrous appears, I meant Ray, I changed the name halfway through the chapter for future reasons that will affect the Giant war.**

 **Any and all reviews are welcomed and appreciated**

 **Happy Reading- Centurion Africanus**


End file.
